Head Boink, time to cull?

Just got a dozen quail chicks (about 3 weeks old) and one of them has a swollen head. I'm almost certain it's due to an injury rather than illness; there don't seem to be any of the other signs of coryza in the breeder's flock or mine, and the chick seems very confused and shaky. Quail are infamously prone to hitting their heads when startled, so I'm going to pad their roof with something to prevent any future accidents, but now I need to decide what to do with the injured bird.

I expected to have to cull some of them, but I'd really hoped they would be older than this. This will be my first time slaughtering a bird, and I hate the thought of wasting it, but there's so little meat on this one. I don't have high hopes for recovery, but if this is a hen I might be willing to put in the extra effort to try. On the other hand, if it dies before I can sex it then I'm out a bird AND a meal... and again, I hate to let an animal go to waste.

Does anyone with more quail experience have any advice? Do you always cull head boinks, or take it case by case? (Any recipes to make the most of a really little quail, or should I just plan on making a stew?)

Maddy, if you had a head injury, what would you want others to do to you?

I'd be inclined to separate it, give it electrolytes in water, and keep an eye out for any changes for at least 24 hours. Then decide based on how it's doing after that.

Thanks for the advice. I should have mentioned it had already been several days and the chick seemed to be having a hard time eating and drinking. It's been a hot week and I couldn't be there to make sure it was getting enough water, but I decided to wait a few more days anyway. Poor thing is still really confused and makes distressed peeping, but I just checked and the swelling  is starting to go down. Still a really nasty lump and I'm not sure if the eye is functional (the fact that it misses the feeder half the time makes me think not...) but it's a little better. More active today, if still stumbling into the side of the cage.

We had a couple of ducklings that got attacked by rats (well lots were but these two survived) the rats bite the base of the skull to kill them so they were both very wobbly, had poor balance and couldn't get their beaks into the feeder/waterer. I hand fed and watered them for about a week until they could stand up and eat themselves and then they stayed in the chicken tractor alone until they got to a good slaughter weight, the boy recovered 100% but the girl would still sometimes fall over. Both made it to meal size though, so if eating is the plan I would make sure it gets food and water, isn't picked on and let it grow, I probably wouldn't keep it for breeding or eggs.

Skandi Rogers wrote:We had a couple of ducklings that got attacked by rats (well lots were but these two survived) the rats bite the base of the skull to kill them so they were both very wobbly, had poor balance and couldn't get their beaks into the feeder/waterer. I hand fed and watered them for about a week until they could stand up and eat themselves and then they stayed in the chicken tractor alone until they got to a good slaughter weight, the boy recovered 100% but the girl would still sometimes fall over. Both made it to meal size though, so if eating is the plan I would make sure it gets food and water, isn't picked on and let it grow, I probably wouldn't keep it for breeding or eggs.

I have a few others that I want to keep regardless of sex so I don't need another male, although if it recovers well and is a healthy hen I might keep it for eggs. Wouldn't hatch any out of this one, just eating eggs. Coturnix quail are fully grown in about 6-10 weeks depending on type. I think this one is an A&M jumbo, so probably on the upper end of that range. Before today I wasn't sure if it would make it that far, but I have a corner of their pen blocked off so the others can see but not pick at it in case it does and I want to reintroduce.

The person who came to mind when I read your thread is this wonderful lady in Normandy, France (she is English) who is incredibly knowledgeable about raising quail, feeding and dealing with injuries etc.  She has a holistic, organic approach.  Lots of great detailed articles and videos. I have learned a great deal from her.  

Holistic Hen (and Quail) website

Good luck with your injured quail.  

My thoughts on this are always is it gaining weight or losing weight?
Use a kitchen scale and find out. A bird that's socially or physically stressed and not eating right will lose weight or not gain any at all, while a bird in reasonable welfare will grow, even when bullied a bit or a runt.

It's grown significantly in the last week. It actually seems to be one of the larger ones now... which is about what I would expect for a jumbo cot. Maybe smaller compared to the other jumbos, but larger than any of the standard sized.

The swelling is going down. I gave it some supervised time with the others today, and nobody seems to even notice the injury. It was never an open wound that would be tempting to pick at, and in hindsight I may have overreacted a bit. It's eating and drinking. Everything is ok. I'm maybe still feeling guilty for keeping my 18 year old cat around for as long as I did, until she could no longer swallow properly. I promised myself I would eat any birds I raised long before they reached that point, both for practical reasons (avoid waste) and for welfare ones (quality of life over quantity...)

I entirely understand and agree. I have a few rules of thumb for treating animals.
1; I do triage and assemble a treatment plan.
   1A; If it's an unknown illness that obviously requires medication, I will try no more than 2-3 courses of medication. (Two if it's in bad shape, three if it's not.) Typically this takes two weeks.
   1B; If it's a wound, injury or other disability I will give at least two weeks of isolation to see if it will heal.

2; If an animal is wasting away, unable to eat, socialize or exercise and has otherwise been treated or held in isolation without serious improvement it needs to be put down.

3; If an injury is OBVIOUSLY life threatening, I will put the animal down immediately regardless of slim recovery chances.
   3A;If I'm questioning, I will give the animal at least 24 hours to see if they worsen. If they don't get worse there's a chance and I go back to step one.

This isn't perfect, but I really feel the same way as you while also wanting to give every animal its best chance. I feel like holding 24 hours for thing I'm on the fence about and 2 weeks if I think they have a real shot lets me assess the situation better and go from there. I can observe issues and see if they get better or worse.

It sounds to me like this got better, so it's worth keeping around and seeing it live out its purpose in life.

Maddy Youngson wrote: It was never an open wound that would be tempting to pick at, and in hindsight I may have overreacted a bit. It's eating and drinking. Everything is ok. I'm maybe still feeling guilty for keeping my 18 year old cat around for as long as I did, until she could no longer swallow properly. I promised myself I would eat any birds I raised long before they reached that point, both for practical reasons (avoid waste) and for welfare ones (quality of life over quantity...)

Most of the useful things I have ever learned with animals have come from situations in which I "overreacted".

It sounds like your cat was well cared for all her life.

We had to wait two weeks for our dog to be put to sleep after he became unable to walk.  I have no regrets as he was looked after the best we could until the very end.