Bird Brain Plasticity! Neat!

Alright, mixed story I wanna share, and pictures later if nothing goes terribly wrong.

A couple nights ago, our chicks that hatched last Saturday had an accident in their brooder. One of the Italians tried to get on top of the brooder plate by squishing between it and the back wall, but he got stuck. Another tried to go up over his back, and pushed that little guy enough that it wedged him further into the corner as the brooder wall flexed with each struggle. That first one got squished and ultimately died before I found them that morning. The second was still alive and trapped, despite being low on heat all night.

I got him out and he was a limp noodle - absolutely exhausted, he couldn't hold up his head, couldn't stand, only had some wing flopping. Luckily we hadn't started the next batch of eggs, so I stuck him in there to keep him warm and got him some food and water. We only have a very small flock, and of the 10 chicks we got this time one was out and this was down, so we had the time to devote to him in his own pen.

As the day went on, though, he wasn't fully recovering. He rested hard, and his neck got less floppity (it was pretty bad) but that was all that got better. He started flopping around by his wings, but he didn't use his legs at all. Testing them, on foot halfheartedly gripped my finger for like a second, and then nothing. Thereafter, nothing all day. His legs were doing nothing, totally unresponsive. It seemed that a lack of oxygen from being squished resulted in brain damage that left him paralyzed past the hips, and he was only *barely* using his hips.

I know a lot of folks would cull a bird at this point, and it's a fact of animal husbandry I understand - he won't make it with the others birds. Thing is though, for what he'd been through, little dude was actually still pretty fierce! He wasn't effective yet, but he was more purposefully moving with wings and beak, and after a day and a half he could get food and water quickly and reliably without any real risk of drowning. What's more, holy COW this baby had some beefy pecs! he wouldn't be able to get outside with the main flock, but if he's a boy he'd be headed to the table anyway out of this batch. We weren't sure what we wanted to do - he was determined enough and potentially capable of living a pretty decent life until dinner time, apparently. His fate undecided, we waited. Good night Wesley. Good work today. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.

Last night, it was evident that his legs were starting to atrophy already in favor of the wings. That pretty much settles the lost legs hypothesis. Curiously, he was also developing his feathers notably faster than his siblings, maybe because resources weren't going to walking, running, and parkour. Still, we kept fiddling with those toes and even more attentively doing physical therapy, I guess because we're just dumb humans who were interested in these floppy toes. We worked them, massaged them, treated them like the legs of anyone else needing physical therapy or limb assistance.

It's now been about three and a half days, and we've been handling all our birds a ton to make them easier in the long run, and he's been no exception. Suddenly, this afternoon, those little toes curled around my finger. we worked the legs, tired him out, gave him a snack, and then put him down for nap. When nap was over (he told us so) we went back to it. Three times we did this, and just now, though he was terribly unsure of the short lived action, he was able bear about 40% of his weight on his legs if we balanced him and supported butt and head a bit. The legs are still a bit thin, but he's getting them BACK!

When I say these legs were done, I mean there was nothing. No kicking, leg flailing, flexing, tension - just floppy leg and toes. This is in no uncertain terms a new development.

So for now, we'll carry on. My spouse rigged up a quick wheelchair for him, but he's just a little too small to use it for a couple more days, so for now it's nap in a towel taco, chill in a tiny cup, and therapy with the humans. I know brain plasticity isn't unique to humans, but I never really hear about fowl being cared for when they're typically so easy to replace, so this has been very cool to observe and encourage! For the device, square flap goes over the butt, head goes through the arms, tummy in the triangle wedge. Square flap will get a poop chute once it fits him.

Sidebar - we've been monitoring for injuries on wings, beak, tummy from the scooch-and-flutter mechanism, but so far he's doing fine. Also, if laid on the smooth wood floor, he'll flap his wings and swim himself forward an inch or so with the air currents now instead of crawling. It's like our bird is a little penguin sledding, or a curling stone skating along the ice XD

My inner biologist loves that you're being scientific about their care, but I really do hope you end up killing them if their legs don't fully "come back" soon, and I mean that as kindly as I can. Quail are not like dogs or cows or parrots or humans or other more social and adaptable animals—if it manages to move using a mobility device, it will likely be because it is unable to get away from it. Regardless, best of luck to you and the chick!

The mobility device is more for us than him lol. We want to encourage him to use his legs for moving more than his wings, but we can only hold him so often. If we can strap him into this, he can't as easily flutter to move - it'll be a lot easier use his legs instead. If we can't get him to work on them himself, his odds are very slim.

No real surprise, but Westley here didn't make it. He was actually holding his own weight firmly last night, working on balancing, and his legs were starting to get thicker and strong again. Today he developed another complication that, when coupled with his waning paralysis, made recovery untenable.

This was worth the effort, though, and if I should have a similar situation, hopefully wherein I find the trapped bird sooner, I'll definitely attempt rehabilitation again!