My African geese (2 ganders) are sick what do I need?

[Harry Rooster]

About a week ago, my youngest gander Henry, started acting lethargic and just standing or sleeping. He is still eating but his neck feathers are fluffed up and he just acts like he's feeling poorly. I was advised to worm him. I tried to get him to eat some lettuce with some Valbazen on it since lettuce is his favorite, but he wouldn't eat it. I think he tasted it on there, even though I had it folded over with the med. inside. Then my other older gander Scarface, has some big knots on the side of his face that have gotten worse and his eye on that side looks like it is infected. Neither have ever been wormed. Didn't know you were supposed to do that. I tried to trick him also with the med on some tomatoes since that is his favorite, but he wouldn't eat it either. Going to have to go with the kind of wormer that you add to the water to be able to get them to take it. What is the best kind that kills all worms. I also have chickens that sometimes drink from the geese's water, so separating the water wouldn't work here. What would be safe for all of them just in case the chickens drank it also? Also, what is this on Scarface's face, is it a bacterial infection, and what can I do for that, any meds I can try for this? I think that this is also on his beard, I don't know though if it's supposed to be like that, but it looks like a knot starting to come up there also. Don't know what caused it or what it is, but I desperately need some advise on this. I will try to post pictures. Thank you so much in advance! Harry Rooster

 

[Harry Rooster]

As you can see, his eyeball is looking like a grey color and looks infected too, if you can tell from the photo. It didn't turn out very good. And he has one of those knots on the end of his beard, also on the other side of his face there is a small little yellow bump coming on up under his eye on that side too. Do you think it is some sort of parasite?

 

[Farm Girl83]

My suggestion would be for the lesions on the face, take them to a vet. I purchase a wormer from Murray McMurray Hatchery that is all natural and organic called WormGuard Plus with flaxseed. It's a feed through wormer that you mix in their feed. It's safe for chickens and geese, I myself have 3 Africans. It works very well, and all my girls don't seem to notice it at all. Mcmurray ships very quickly too. The only definitive answer you will get is by doing a fecal flotation to know if it is definitely worms. I would take them to your veterinarian. Sometime this can be tricky too, I'm in Kansas and had to take my goose to Kansas State University when she had crop impaction. But if you've never wormed them, I suggest the WormGuard Plus.

 

[servpolice]

Hello harry i love your african gander!
Well yea you have to worm him offcourse but the reason his eye is like that is because when the weather is warm and dry dust particals irritate the eye area and make it look infectious :/
But worm the gander and it can also happen when the place where he sleeps is very warm and dry ,best solution is cold or warm teabags on his eyes it will help him better and clean his area once or twice a day.

My buff african gander had this situation also last year in summer but it went away but he did lose a lot of weight.


hope it helped a bit

 

[servpolice]

Oh make sure he eats a bit of barley and flaked and waterfowl feed if you can purchase it

 

[Harry Rooster]

More photos hopefully better.






Hope someone can help me. See the little yellow colored bump under his eye, like a mole or something? He is very old. Haven't been checking him close enough to see this happening until it got big like it is.

 

[servpolice]

Tell me what weather you have?!

 

[Harry Rooster]

I'm sure it is not from particle irritation, it is something more serious because his other eye is not like that and I think it has something to do with the knots that have come up on his face, what every they are. I hope it's not some kind of cancer or something, I was thinking an infection. I have no vet around here that know anything about poultry or birds of any kind so that wouldn't really be an option. I don't know where the nearest bird vet would be, maybe Birmingham or Montgomery which is miles and miles away from me even if there were one in either of those places. Hoping to just order some antibiotics for maybe a bacterial infection or something like that. If I could find out what to get, I could order it today with the wormer. Can't give shots though, I don't know how and these ganders are not used to being handled and are very aggressive and mean so I couldn't handle them myself, need something I can put in the food or water hopefully. I love these geese, we've had them for years and never had a problem. We've always fed them plain cracked corn, they eat plenty of grass and we give them lettuce and in the seasons for pumpkins we give them tomatoes, pumpkin innards, watermelon, cantaloupe, ect. Didn't have any idea that they were supposed to eat waterfowl food or oats or anything like that until I got on here and started asking about what was wrong with my gander, then I read it somewhere that they should be fed those other things. When you say oats, do you mean like oatmeal oats or something like that? I didn't even know that they were supposed to be wormed or chickens either until we started having problems. Any info on food ect. I could use. Thanks so much for helping. I'm very worried about them both.

 

[Harry Rooster]

Warm mostly. We live in South Alabama. We've had an unusually cold winter this year that neither our animals or we are used to. It got down to 19 degrees a couple of times and they were out in the chicken run during that spell. Now it's running into the 70's and 80's. Never had a problem with it before. Scarface had a knot on his face a while back but I thought he had gotten bee stung or something and didn't pay it any attention, and thought it would go away once the swelling went down and he wasn't acting like he was sick or anything. Now it's like this. It is something serious, I just know it. Parasites, or bacterial infection or something like that? It has been raining a lot lately and now it's very warm around here.

 

[Iain Utah]

I have no idea what could be wrong with your ganders. If one got it first, then the other, than I would be inclined to think it is an infectious problem, possibly viral but it could be fungal. They are on a perfectly good diet, so I would not make changes there. You could take some fresh stool to any small animal vet clinic to run a fecal test for $25 or so and rule out worms. I would also call around to your vets. Oftentimes in rural area, many livestock vets can do limited things with poultry, if only because they personally own a small backyard flock.