Quail sudden neurological symptoms

[QuailIssue]

My second weird urgent quail issue (yay)
I'll start with the symptoms and then more info:
- stumbling/inability to stand
- neck problems/can't keep heads up, head crooks to the side and "spins" in a circle when they try to keep it upright and straight
- now some loss of appetite and thirst

A while back I posted here that rats were chewing through my coop and killing my quail. I needed a new one clearly but my back was really bad so my father offered to come over and help. I told him how high it needed to be and why but he just kind of ignored me, he ended up making it two feet tall. About a week later a few of the quail suddenly had terrible neuro symptoms, stumbling around with their heads at an angle, most losing balance entirely. I assumed they'd hit their heads, we filled the thing 1/2 with bedding and there haven't been any more messed up ones since then.

I've been slowly nursing the sick ones in my spare shower with syringe feeding nutridrench and holding them in place so they can eat and drink a few times a day. They were starting to improve a lot, one of them even stopped stumbling completely, but in the past couple days they've started to get worse instead of better, with the "normal" one now fully unable to stand up again, and they all have lowered appetites. They're active (kick around the shower all day) and don't seem that stressed, but they just can't stand or keep their heads up, they loll to the side and kind of crane around in a circle whenever they try to use them.

I'm starting to wonder if this may be some sort of poison? Is it possible that the feed is contaminated with something? None of the others have showed any symptoms since we fixed the ceiling issue, but the sudden degradation has me wondering if it could be something else? I had considered it maybe just being the effects of prolonged inability to eat and drink normally, but the previously recovered one was eating and drinking all day no problem... Does anyone know what this could be?

I almost forgot, I wanted to add that there's been a really messed up looking mangy fox sniffing around the barn that the coop is in. He can't get in obviously, and there's no sort of ventilation holes in the areas he's sniffing around, but is it possible he's transmitting disease to them somehow?

Thanks

 

[Eggcessive]

You may want to also post on the quail forum here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/quail.48/
The neuro symptoms could be wry neck from head injury or injury from other chicks. Many people use human vitamin E 400 IU softgels cut open, human vitamin B complex tablets 1/4 day, and a bit of cooked egg for selenium to treat for a couple of weeks. I know very little about quail, but chickens are prone to wry neck, running around in circles or backward, and crooked necks.

 

[TwoCrows]

Sounds like she boinked her head by flushing up into the ceiling, this is common with quail when they get scared. They flush hard and fast and injure their heads and necks.

All you can do is give supportive care, keep her inside and in a warm place, confined with a towel under her. You can give a crumb of a baby aspirin once daily to help with inflammation. Hopefully she didn't damage her brain and spine too much and heals soon.