texas a&m quail - blood on pin feathers?

[dehave]

I know nothing about quail! The guy I bought my ducklings from slipped them into the box, he thought he was being generous to my daughter who said she liked them!

Now I have this tiny little quail. My sister was holding her today and she dropped her. She was sitting down when it happened so maybe 16" fall. She seemed fine, but now she has blood that seems to be coming out of some (4-5) of her pin feathers. Could that indicate more serious internal damage. She is housed with a coturnix quail and 3 ducklings. Could the ducklings be picking on her? They never do when I am watching. I was going to seperate them, but the quail cry when they are seperated. They follow the ducklings around like they are their mothers. They like to scrunch up next to the ducklings to sleep. (brooder between 90-98)

PLEASE let her be ok! I can't handle the thought of the birds dying due to human error.

 

[poultrykeeper08]

the pin feathers have blood in them so maybe when it fell it split some of the pin feathers open and thast why its bleeding . Be careful though the ducklings grow fast and they may squash the quail

 

[dehave]

I just went in and seperated both the quail. Then I notice the little coturnix picking at the blood. I don't know if she is bleeding from the fall or if they were picking on her before that, but now she is alone in a kleenex box in the brooder. She has food and water and a little pile of kleenex to snuggle up on, but she is lonely. She is just crying and crying. What should I do for her?

 

[poultrykeeper08]

quile usualy pick at eachother when they dont have alot of room to run around in . Or if you put different aged quial together the younger ones always get picked on .

If you have chickens and for some reason one has a cut or something the other chickens will peck and peck at the cut and make it worse. I assume its the same with quail

 

[dehave]

OMG, I put her in a kleenex box (a tall one) in the brooder to keep her seperate. I checked on her 3-4 times and then left for 1.5 hours. I came home and checked on her. The coturnix had hopped in the box with her. She is bloody and half, literally half of her feathers are gone, BALD!! I can see almost her whole bare wing. What can I possibly do for this baby? i am holding her in my sweatshirt typing 1 handed right now, and listening to her cry. Please help!

 

[silkiechicken]

Sounds like you figured out why the feathers were bleeding. Sounds like your other quail is a feather picker already. I think all you can really do is keep them separated and apply a wound dressing if it's really bloody. Keep an eye on the picker though.

 

[dehave]

OK, so I did not sleep last night. I had seperated the one that had been picked on (Popcorn) from everybody else, with a hardware cloth lid on her box so the picker (M&M) couldn't get in again. She cried until I helped her burrow into her towel like she was under her mommy and then she went to sleep. Around 2 am I heard screaming. I think the ducks got sick of M&M (everytime they lay down he runs laps over them and gets everyone worked up) and tried to drown him or something. Everyone was freaking out and M&M was SOAKING wet and hanging over panting. So in the middle of the night I had to figure out another box with hardware cloth lid to seperate him. The quail were calling to each other all night. (remember the quail were a suprise "gift") Anyhow, how can I seperate them in a way that they won't cry for each other all night, but can't hurt each other?

My kids actually slept through the night (unusual), but if it's not one thing it's another.