What is wrong with my Button Quail? PLEASE HELP!!

[KasaraWolf]

I am at a loss. My little boy Gwaine has been like this since March 6th and it seems that whatever he has, is not wanting to go away. He was very fluffy all the time and sleeping. His head was very swollen, as seen in the pictures below~

March 11th he was able to go to the vet. (I called immediately but they didn't have an opening till the 11th, so I just gave him warm cloths and cuddles until then) She flushed his eye and gave him medications to help clear it up. She checked his lungs and got a magnification glass and checked his skin and eyes. She didn't know what it was either and so, prescribed me 4 medicines to give him. The medications were: Tri Optic Opth Oint to put on after I put the Flubiprofen in his eye. Meloxidyl and SMZ-TMP Susp twice daily for general infection and to reduce swelling. They have helped, as the swelling went down. My vet told me to continue the medications until it looked better, so I did. I stopped all medications on Friday. Since yesterday, his swelling was almost completely gone. I didn't take a picture of yesterday's progress, but his eye rims were even smaller than the picture below (His color is weird because of his bathing sand)

Its March 28th and his eye is looking like its swelling again. I think it may be swelling due to him itching it. He's acting pretty normal (I have a camera in his house and he's currently zipping around like normal, instead of just sleeping all the time like he was on the medication and when I first noticed the swelling) except for the fact that he's VERY itchy on his whole body and eye. He chews his legs, his front chest, everywhere. I've looked at his skin and it looks dry, but I see no signs of mites. I just don't know what's going on, and I am so stressed over it I know he's still not 100% because he usually calls, either a scream or a growl and he has not done that since the beginning of March.

So this is what I have observed that he still does~

-Eye swelling
-Itchy skin
-Small sneezes once in a while
-Poops vary from being solid to very watery
-Walks around fluffed up when in his cage.
-Heavy Breathing when he's alone in his cage.

Here are some videos of the itching and what my camera has picked up when he's in his house-

Itching

Heavy Breathing (He has never done this before even when he zooms around his house)

Fluffy Body, Heavy Breathing and Itching under his chest/eyes

Gwaine is a 9 year old Button Quail. He has a diet of seeds, lettuce, cucumber, strawberries and dried mealworms for treats. I am at the end of my rope, I am unsure what I should do. I just want my old baby to feel better. (He has already had around $400 in vet bills from his two visits this month) Please help! Thank you~

 

[Wyorp Rock]

@007Sean @Nabiki @TwoCrows do any of you have suggestions?

 

[Nabiki]

He's nine years old?! That's amazing. They normally live about 2-3 years.

If you still have some of the eye medicine left, I'd keep using that. You mentioned that you don't see any signs of mites, but it wouldn't hurt to put 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of diatomaceous earth in his dirt batch.

I hate to say it, but it is possible that he's just reached the end of his lifespan. You've obviously been taking very good care of him.

 

[KasaraWolf]

Update on Gwaine!

He is no longer breathing really hard. He went for another vet visit and they flushed his sinus's since they were clogged, (Mucus major time nose was completely clogged) so he's breathing normal now~

However, he is still itching. No idea why. He got a shot to kill inner and outer parasites and this has not stopped his itching, so I don't think it was mites.

Some of his feathers were looking dirty where his preen gland is (lots of sand caked up) so I decided to give him a wash. He's pretty good with cleaning himself so I thought it was odd. He had a very wonk looking small feather on the back of him that came out when I was washing him with no force whatsoever. While drying him, I noticed his back end feathers were not drying out. Come to find out where the feather came out it left a small hole, and half a teaspoon or more of dark yellow looking pus was waterfalling out of him. (Infected preen gland??) I cleaned it up and had to take Q-Tips to the small hole in his back, till nothing left came out of it. Problem is, he is now leaking this dark yellow stuff, even AFTER the hole closed up. I am gonna go to another vet appointment, so hopefully that is what is causing all his issues.

 

[Nabiki]

I hope that's the issue and that he gets better.

 

[FathertoFeathers]

How’s he doing?

 

[KasaraWolf]

Update~!

So after another vet visit, Gwaine had his preen gland and the hole where it was leaking out flushed out with a syringe. After the cleaning, the hold sealed up within 5 days. I check daily to make sure it doesn't try filling up and rupturing again, but the vet warned me that it may do it again, since he's so small. He was given Baytril that he needed to take for 2 weeks. He is not allowed to take sand baths, (most likely never again) since it seems sand was clogging his nose and his preen gland and he has nooott been happy about that. He takes whatever he can get, trying to now bathe himself in one of my blankets~

If anyone has any suggestions in what he can use to bathe in and not clog his nose or preen gland again, it would be greatly appreciated!

Tomorrow is the last day for Baytril, so we shall see how he does after he's off of it! He's been on medicine for over 6 weeks now and he's getting really tired of it. Baytril seems to be doing better than the previous SMZ-TMP medicine he was taking. There was a point however one night where he suddenly had a hard time breathing when I picked him up and was about to give him medicine. He was mouth breathing and his chest was making a clicking sound. I was scared I was gonna loose him that night, but after an hour, his breathing went back to normal. During this time, he was only on the medicine for a week.

He seems to act normal now. He eats a ton, he demolished a cucumber when he made me hold so he could eat it (but seems to have a hard time gaining weight, he now weighs 51 grams at the end up the day when in March he was 56 grams) He runs around his cage like normal and takes a 30 minute naps throughout the day before doing his laps again. He hasn't had a crackly chest ever since that one incident at night. He now wants to fight the evil squeaker toy I have in my room that he hates with a passion, when before, he had little reaction to seeing or hearing it (It doesn't even have to make sound, he sees it and it fills him with rage haha) However, he still will not do his usual screaming he loves to do, especially when I put on his favorite songs.

He still itches his face, but not too much. I noticed he starts itching it when mucus starts to clog his nose. I was given nose drops, so I use them whenever it looks like his nose is starting to clog. His eyelid I believe may be damaged now due to him scratching his face so much, so it juts upward.

After around $1000 in vet bills, his illness is still unknown. Due to being so small, they could not do blood work to figure out exactly what he has. Baytril is basically his last hope, so hopefully he doesn't slip back to feeling super sick once he's off of it.

 

[Nabiki]

Try regular garden dirt for his bath. I'm glad he's doing better. Good luck!

 

[Helanaii]

Update~!

So after another vet visit, Gwaine had his preen gland and the hole where it was leaking out flushed out with a syringe. After the cleaning, the hold sealed up within 5 days. I check daily to make sure it doesn't try filling up and rupturing again, but the vet warned me that it may do it again, since he's so small. He was given Baytril that he needed to take for 2 weeks. He is not allowed to take sand baths, (most likely never again) since it seems sand was clogging his nose and his preen gland and he has nooott been happy about that. He takes whatever he can get, trying to now bathe himself in one of my blankets~

If anyone has any suggestions in what he can use to bathe in and not clog his nose or preen gland again, it would be greatly appreciated!

Tomorrow is the last day for Baytril, so we shall see how he does after he's off of it! He's been on medicine for over 6 weeks now and he's getting really tired of it. Baytril seems to be doing better than the previous SMZ-TMP medicine he was taking. There was a point however one night where he suddenly had a hard time breathing when I picked him up and was about to give him medicine. He was mouth breathing and his chest was making a clicking sound. I was scared I was gonna loose him that night, but after an hour, his breathing went back to normal. During this time, he was only on the medicine for a week.

He seems to act normal now. He eats a ton, he demolished a cucumber when he made me hold so he could eat it (but seems to have a hard time gaining weight, he now weighs 51 grams at the end up the day when in March he was 56 grams) He runs around his cage like normal and takes a 30 minute naps throughout the day before doing his laps again. He hasn't had a crackly chest ever since that one incident at night. He now wants to fight the evil squeaker toy I have in my room that he hates with a passion, when before, he had little reaction to seeing or hearing it (It doesn't even have to make sound, he sees it and it fills him with rage haha) However, he still will not do his usual screaming he loves to do, especially when I put on his favorite songs.

He still itches his face, but not too much. I noticed he starts itching it when mucus starts to clog his nose. I was given nose drops, so I use them whenever it looks like his nose is starting to clog. His eyelid I believe may be damaged now due to him scratching his face so much, so it juts upward.

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After around $1000 in vet bills, his illness is still unknown. Due to being so small, they could not do blood work to figure out exactly what he has. Baytril is basically his last hope, so hopefully he doesn't slip back to feeling super sick once he's off of it.

Are there any environmental changes that he could be allergic to? Or an allergy hes developed?

 

[KasaraWolf]

Try regular garden dirt for his bath. I'm glad he's doing better. Good luck!

I will have to try that! Thank you!!