Emergency Intensive Care Unit for Baby Quail Chicks or Other Small Pets

I hatch my quail eggs under a hen, which works very well unless the chick has a health issue, the most likely being a nutritional deficiency. In commercially sourced hatching eggs, this is usually a riboflavin/Vitamin B₂ problem, a deficiency which causes a condition known as curled toe paralysis and which is fatal if left untreated. As the name suggests, the quail is unable to walk or even stand and therefore not capable of getting up into the feathers of the hen and near to her skin. The chick does this to maintain the constant high brooding temperatures it needs during the first 2 weeks of life. Therefore, not only does the chick run the risk of losing body heat but also that of being crushed under the hen's feet as she moves on the nest. This ICU is to provide support for the chick(s) in the form of heat and also provide a safe place for them to consume the necessary foods to furnish the riboflavin and other essential nutrients to cure the paralysis. As one of my chicks had a more severe case than the other, I also provided an individual 'bed' made from a matchbox base, so that the chicks could be together at night without risk of the weaker one being walked on by the other. The unit is light and portable and can be placed alongside the mother, so the chicks can still hear her voice, keep in contact and most importantly maintain the bond already formed with her. Therefore, once on their feet again, the chicks can easily be placed back with the hen with no acceptance problems.

As this year I have been able to purchase eggs from organically fed quail, I was a bit more lax in my planning for the hatch. Therefore, when curled toe paralysis struck down two of the chicks, it was an emergency which needed an immediate solution and I had to quickly make an ICU from what I had to hand. However, this meant we now have a very simple and very cheap unit, which works and is now available for future use.

The design was simple too. I chose a small cardboard box for the ICU and an inspection lamp held inside what was a wooden slate hook box, for the heat source.

Here our little gold quail gets déjà vu, as he's placed back in the ICU - at the time I was rather too worried to take still photos, although I did manage to get some film footage as you will see.

MATERIALS

One small cardboard box

Inspection Lamp with 15W - 20W bulb

Large 4" or 100mm Diameter Cardboard Tube - I used a cocoa container

Masking Tape

Natural Wood Wool Insulation

Rectangular Wooden Box suitable to fit the inspection lamp

Lid for same - I used an off-cut of zinc sheet from a gutter bent to shape but a piece of wood will do

Moss

Paper Napkins

Matchbox base

TOOL

Saw

The inspection lamp was fitted with the cardboard tube, this holds the inspection lamp level in the box. The lamp was then laid in the box and a slot was cut in one end of the wood to accommodate the exit of the wire.

I used wood wool to pack around the back of the lamp to reduce the volume of air being heated and therefore to ensure that the bulb heat was not being wasted but directed up into the ICU.

We have many different types of off-cuts of natural insulation left over from our house renovation and wood wool is one such ecological, non-toxic material, very suitable for chicks.

The lid could be slid to and fro to obtain the optimum aperture necessary for the ideal heat to go into the ICU (this was a bit trial and error but it worked).

I lined the base of the cardboard box with tissue paper which could be replaced as needed.

The sides of the box were lined with fresh moss, which not only added to to the insulation and therefore stopped heat-loss but was also a soft material and one which I had used to line the main nest. This meant the quail were in a very similar environment to their home and again this gave them the idea, once the box was closed, that they were with their mother.

Once the box was tested, we found that there was a thin line of light coming from the gap in the base of the box, which I thought might be distracting for the quail chicks. I used masking tape to cover this.

Another modification was that on my finding one quail patient to be more active than the other I used a match box, lined similarly with a napkin and moss, to make an individual bed to keep the more deficient quail chick safe.

Above you can see in this piece of raw film, that the box is at the correct temperature because the chicks are not exhibiting any sings of distress or stress. Quail chicks are very vocal, when things are not right and they are a much better indicator of ideal heat levels than a thermometer!

As you can see, there was also room within the ICU to place the crucial nutrition to aid in remedying this condition.

We also found that it took around 10 minutes for the lamp to heat the box to the optimum temperature for the chicks. The box also maintained a constant heat which suited them very well.

Of the two quail who had curled toe paralysis, one eventually succumbed and the other was completely cured after I was able to get hold of organic beef liver. I think if this problem hadn't first manifested itself on a Sunday and we hadn't used up all the liver in the freezer, then I would have been able to save both of them. The only indication to the contrary was that the chronically ill quail chick had amazing feathering, so my belief is, that all its nutrition was going into physical growth rather than nervous system support, so that could have been an added issue. What is certain though is that neither of these quail would have survived so long had they been left under the hen. Furthermore, the surviving chick would not have been so calm and so easily able to go back to the mother if the bond had been broken for too long and if kept in a more clinical environment, such as a commercial brooder.