This has two main benefits
1. It stops the problem spreading to the rest of your birds.
2. It stops other birds picking on their weaker 'ill' flat mate.
A hospital cage is much the same as a brooder. It should give access to food and water and preferably have a heat source e.g light bulb. N.B Do not under estimate the healing power of heat. Heat alone can bring a bird back from the brink and will sometimes work when all else fails.
First clean the wound then apply an antiseptic cream. Remove the bird to a hospital cage until the wound has healed.
Chick Problems
If your incubation has gone well (you have managed to maintain the temperature and humidity correctly) and you have a good brooder set up, but you are still having problems with the health of your chicks then there are two possible causes and both relate to their parrents.
Most people understand that if any two animals are too closley related then the resulting offspring may be weak or deformed. This is true of quail and is one of the main reasons for this site. By adding new blood to your stock every now and again ( by swapping eggs and birds through the UK Quail Forum) and being careful with your pairings you will avoid such problems.
A less obvious cause of unhealthy chicks is the lack of certain vitamans it their parents diet! Did you know that a lack of vitiman D in the parrents diet causes splayed leggs in chicks. Vitaman D will usually be produced naturally when the birds are exposed to sun light. However if your quail only have access to artificial light then you must add vitaman D to their diet. The best way of doing this is to add some cod liver oil to their food.
