Gambel Quail plague

[Catastrophic]

My entire gambel quail flock of five was left decimated, and all died the past two weeks. Only leaving me now with one sole female. The first female I found just dead, while the last two males died two days separated from each other. Seemed to be very lethargic and inactive. With the final stage before they died. Being almost completely dead on the floor, barely breathing. Seemed to die in about a day after appearing very droopy and less energy. Tried everything antibiotics, cleaned their avairy, more protein in their feed. But they jsut died. I want to know what happened so I can prevent this in the future and how to rest it properly, what type of disease it could have possibly been.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I’d look for a clostridium type agent (causes various diseases in various species: tetanus, over eating (calves and lambs), blackleg (calves), red water (cattle), hemorrhagic bowel (cattle and possibly dogs), quail disease…). Unless they were somehow poisoned/toxin, it sounds like a bug that strikes fast and unexpectedly, killing before you know they are sick and if you do catch them it is usually too late to treat. A nasty strain of e. Coli or salmonella could also do it, as could certain viruses, but where did it come from? A virus needs a vector (wild birds in avian influenza, mosquitoes for west Nile and sleeping sickness). Clostridium and certain other pathogens can form spores and remain latent in the environment or body tissue until the conditions are appropriate for growth (varies by species: a wound, damaged muscle or liver tissue, too much starch in the gut…) when it wakes up, multiplies, and produces a nasty toxin that quickly kills the host. You’d need to send your dead birds into a diagnostic lab for any hope of an actual diagnosis (and half the time it comes back inconclusive). There really aren’t any available vaccines for birds. Penicillin type drugs are effective but if the animal is already sick it doesn’t have time to take effect, usually all you can do is treat the survivors prophylacticly. Good hygiene, ventilation, nutrition, and clean water help prevent issues but you can’t prevent everything. Limiting contact with wild birds and rodents can also help but isn’t always practical. Sorry for your loss but don’t blame yourself or give up in frustration, stuff like this is part of raising anything and sometimes we never get an answer. Just do your best, learn from the hard times, and keep going!

 

[Nabiki]

I would send one of the birds into your state necropsy lab. Tests for the standard diseases aren't too expensive, and then you'd have an idea of what you're looking at.

https://www.heritageacresmarket.com/poultry-necropsy-labs/

 

[Catastrophic]

Thank you so much for all the info and all the recommendations, will definitely look into all the things you guys recommend. I think once I get my next quail, I’m going to completely separate them from my pigeons and parrots. And try practicing better bio security measures like changing the waters more commonly and cleaning their aviaries more frequently. And since this is my first time raising quail, I’m a bit of novice to all of this. I’m going to get some montezumas and more expensive breeds, so I really want to prevent this type of pestilence in the future.

 

[007Sean]

Thank you so much for all the info and all the recommendations, will definitely look into all the things you guys recommend. I think once I get my next quail, I’m going to completely separate them from my pigeons and parrots. And try practicing better bio security measures like changing the waters more commonly and cleaning their aviaries more frequently. And since this is my first time raising quail, I’m a bit of novice to all of this. I’m going to get some montezumas and more expensive breeds, so I really want to prevent this type of pestilence in the future.

Biosecurity, Biosecurity, Biosecurity is the 'key' to a healthy covey! I wouldn't recommend raising quail with pigeons or parrots...even other upland gamebirds are iffy, unless you have advanced aviaicultral experience.
Mearns quail are on a much higher level of experience needed than Coturnix quail.

Sounds like it may have possibly been UE, Ulcerative Enteritus. UE can kill quickly before you can even realize anything is wrong. Usually, it's treated with Oxytetracycline, Tetracycline, sometimes Duramycine. All are 'script' drugs and a vet can give a script for them.
If I were you, I'd send the body of 1 in for a necropsy.

ETA-- Quail are known by either their common name or scientific name and their species names, there are no breeds of quail, only color variants.