Healing Hands

Healing Hands

a true story about life as an urban quail

By: Hannah Johnston

As I have mentioned in a previous post (visit Top Quail Eats) because of its small size and disability of not really being able to fly at all, the quail has many predators. The #1 predator being, the crow(s). Here at ilovemyquail we do in fact love our quail and take pride in trying to give them the best life possible however, accidents do happen. And sadly there is nothing that we as loving quail owners can do except hope for a miracle to happen. 

Sleepy is a miracle.

Sleepy, one our beloved quail developed a cataract in both of her eyes, making it very difficult for her to open them. Her condition was very stable and she was doing quite well until the attack. It was one of those rare sunny spring afternoons here in Vancouver, the perfect type of day for house cleaning or in my case, quail coop cleaning. If you are a quail owner you probably know that it is nearly impossible to give the quail coop a good clean with the quail in it. It's just one of those things that does not work...  So, figuring it was such a beautiful sunny day I decided to set up our alternate quail pen (visit Live Your Best Life (quail) that lets are quail peck at bugs in the grass but still keeps them safe from predators, or so I thought... 

This would not be the first crow attack.

 Life as an urban quail is not always easy. Sometimes, there is no where to hide and no where to run. Then imagine Sleepy, not being able to see the next attack coming. The crows in my neighbourhood have a bad reputation for being vicious creatures who like some humans will do whatever they can to get what they want. Unfortunately, Sleepy was their latest victim.

I went inside to answer the phone and when I came back..

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a crow flying away. The crow did not have a quail in it's mouth (thank god) but, I knew that something was wrong. When you are a quail owner/lover, you may as well call yourself a quail mother (or father) because it your job to take care of the quail as if they were your own children.  You must feed them, talk to them, love them and try your best to protect them from danger. At that moment, my quail mother instincts kicked in and sure enough, poor little Sleepy had been victimized. The crow had pecked through the openings in the cage!

Part of her beak had been brooken and she was bleeding.

At first, we thought that this was for sure the end. Sleepy could not see or eat by herself so how in the world would Sleepy be able to live independently? We all want the best for our children/quail so sometimes we have to ask ourselves at what point does the quality of ones life more important that life itself? 

Sleepy is a survivor.

After a couple of days of Sleepy living in a basket in our kitchen and us feeding her egg yolk and water with a syringe, we decided that it would be best to put Sleepy back where she belonged, with her quail family. Lets just say we were prepared for the worse. No one  expected and was prepared for Sleepy to last more than a couple days at most but, lets just say a miracle happened and she is making full recovery. Her beak is heeling and Sleepy is growing stronger everyday. 

I LOVE MY QUAIL