I have a pet quail who's 17 months old. Two days ago aprox she started a new treatment for a skin infection she has with voriconazole and amoxicilin/clavulanate.
I believe the medication is probably giving her some side effects, because right after starting she has been clumpsy and eating less. But she's still laying and otherwise seems healthy. Amoxicilin she's taken in the past no problem. Voriconazole is new and from what I've read it can cause all types of side effects (in humans). In animals I've read that it can cause lack of appetite, tiredness, incoordination, vomiting, diarrhea between others.
She tries to eat but the pellets keep falling off her beak. I see less and smaller droppings than usual so she's eating less. I am not sure if it's just the clumpsiness or she's also more tired, but she's not eating normally.
The vet said in the past that when she's not eating enough even if she's not badly sick handfeed is the way to go to keep her as strong as possible. So I'm gonna start handfeeding her. But I've never done it and I am very lost.
My experience handfeeding birds is limited to raising sparrows, and with those it was pretty easy because the crop was very easy to see. So I just hand fed them every time they got an empty crop until the crop was full.
With the quail I encountered several problems/questions:
1. The first and most important is I don't know how much feed to give her. I don't know how to tell when her crop is full and I need to stop. I know where her crop is, but it's not as easy to see as the sparrow's. There's a lot of thick feathers and it doesn't stick out like the sparrow's. I don't know how a full crop looks on a quail. I don't know how much to give her so that I'm not overfeeding or underfeeding her.
2. I don't know how many times a day to feed her. I'd say she's eating by herself 30-40% of the usual quantity.
I grinded her feed to a powder (although still has some very small hard pieces), and that's what I'm giving her. Adding some water and forming a liquidy paste.
3. Not sure how much water to add? Because if it's too thick it doesn't wanna go into the syringe. I guess as thick as possible as long as the syringe can take it.
I'm force feeding her the same way I give her the meds. Just like the vet told me, 1ml syringe inserted into her throat way past the glottis.
4. I hope this way of feeding her it's ok (?) And if there's an easier method, because it's a lot of 1ml syringes in one sitting. I also have a crop feeding syringe but it comes with a silicone tube and I'm not sure if I can put that down her throat easily, also not sure when to stop feeding.
I also wrote the vet asking about this and some other stuff but I haven't gotten an answer yet and the last time he took over a week to get back to me, so I'm writting here hoping to get some answers sooner.
If you have experience hand feeding a quail, please let me know if you have an answer to my questions, specially the first one. How to tell when the crop is full.
Thank you
I believe the medication is probably giving her some side effects, because right after starting she has been clumpsy and eating less. But she's still laying and otherwise seems healthy. Amoxicilin she's taken in the past no problem. Voriconazole is new and from what I've read it can cause all types of side effects (in humans). In animals I've read that it can cause lack of appetite, tiredness, incoordination, vomiting, diarrhea between others.
She tries to eat but the pellets keep falling off her beak. I see less and smaller droppings than usual so she's eating less. I am not sure if it's just the clumpsiness or she's also more tired, but she's not eating normally.
The vet said in the past that when she's not eating enough even if she's not badly sick handfeed is the way to go to keep her as strong as possible. So I'm gonna start handfeeding her. But I've never done it and I am very lost.
My experience handfeeding birds is limited to raising sparrows, and with those it was pretty easy because the crop was very easy to see. So I just hand fed them every time they got an empty crop until the crop was full.
With the quail I encountered several problems/questions:
1. The first and most important is I don't know how much feed to give her. I don't know how to tell when her crop is full and I need to stop. I know where her crop is, but it's not as easy to see as the sparrow's. There's a lot of thick feathers and it doesn't stick out like the sparrow's. I don't know how a full crop looks on a quail. I don't know how much to give her so that I'm not overfeeding or underfeeding her.
2. I don't know how many times a day to feed her. I'd say she's eating by herself 30-40% of the usual quantity.
I grinded her feed to a powder (although still has some very small hard pieces), and that's what I'm giving her. Adding some water and forming a liquidy paste.
3. Not sure how much water to add? Because if it's too thick it doesn't wanna go into the syringe. I guess as thick as possible as long as the syringe can take it.
I'm force feeding her the same way I give her the meds. Just like the vet told me, 1ml syringe inserted into her throat way past the glottis.
4. I hope this way of feeding her it's ok (?) And if there's an easier method, because it's a lot of 1ml syringes in one sitting. I also have a crop feeding syringe but it comes with a silicone tube and I'm not sure if I can put that down her throat easily, also not sure when to stop feeding.
I also wrote the vet asking about this and some other stuff but I haven't gotten an answer yet and the last time he took over a week to get back to me, so I'm writting here hoping to get some answers sooner.
If you have experience hand feeding a quail, please let me know if you have an answer to my questions, specially the first one. How to tell when the crop is full.
Thank you
