I've been keeping quail since last August and taken loads of advice from this forum - so thanks.
Two of my hens died within three weeks of each other recently and I don't know why. In both cases, I noticed that they would stand, wobble around a bit and constantly close their eyes. I took them inside and into a hospital cage, but within hours both had died. One was very thin and clearly hadn't been eating properly for a few days, but the other seemed to have more of an appetite and I was confident we had caught her in time - but she died within a couple of hours of noticing she wasn't well.
They are kept in the garden in a coop and run with sawdust inside and straw outside, fed on crushed chicken (layers) pellets, mealworms, greens and occasionally millet. They were no more than 6 months old, ratio of 1 male to 5/6 females who all seem to get on well at the moment, and the others all seem fine (for now). They haven't been laying over the winter. I have had head injuries before, but this wasn't the case with these two. They also seem to have coped well with the recent frost and snow.
I'm consciencious about cleaning the coop and run out every one to two weeks, but I'm worried that it's not enough and they have picked up bacteria of some sort. What can I do to stop this happening again? Any ideas what they might have died of?