Poor little thing (4 day old gosling help needed)

A friend who raises poultry brought to me a day-old Toulouse gosling, hatched on Friday, 5/20. It had been pushed out of the nest, apparently while still in the egg, and then perhaps stepped on by geese or goats. She found it on its back and cold, she nearly mistook it for dead. At the time the goose was not interested neither was it interested after the baby was warm and dry. My friend had been hatching Seramas so had a brooding box already going and put it there with the famous, "if it lives, it lives." Well, it fluffed up and was alive. Since it was already bigger than the day-old Seramas and since I was already set up from raising my own, store bought, gosling (now 4 weeks) she brought it to me.

It is kinda pitiful. The pictures don't show it very well, but its eyes are half shut and it can't see very well at all. Its tail keeps being pulled one way or the other, curiously the same side as in the direction it is looking at the time. It has taken this many days to quit falling and tumbling on a level surface, forget walking on uneven surface. Today at least it balances 100% better but not as it should be at 4 days. It had a panic attack when I took its food dish out for cleaning and refill, it wasn't as bad with the water. It panics if its food, water, and stuffed bear are not where it expects them to be. I suspect it can see, out of focus, a small amount but with things that are common it doesn't try to. When it panics it rushes flat out in a straight line until it hits something - and boy does it hit that something hard. I have been pretty much leaving it alone, only taking it out and holding it when I put some eye drops in to keep its eyes most. I've pulled on the lower lids to make sure that they were not tight or "frozen" for some reason. They seem to move easily so that there is nothing mechanical to prevent it from opening them. Today it seemed to actually look at my hand and want to be held. When I gave it some carpet time it did pretty good toddling around but didn't play. It even flapped its tiny wings once. Then when it was tired it came and snuggled along my arm.

I want to make sure that there are not some vitamins or special considerations concerning the eyes. So far I have to grind up its food for it to easily eat it, and it spends quite a bit of time in its water dish. I'm not sure that is because it wanders in while doing other things and just doesn't care if it is wet or not, or if it is because it likes to be there. My initial theory is that it is "premature" and just now catching up. The eyes concern me though, I hope they can be improved. I've cared for sight challenged animals before but it would be better off if it could see.

My 4 week old gosling, who is imprinted on people and somewhat on the dogs, is totally jealous. I've never seen a jealous goose before but there is no mistaking it. I hope that they might at least co-exist once the little one is bigger, it could be help to have a sighted goose to follow around.

One week old and she is still unsteady a lot of the time. Notice in the picture her tail is pointed the same way as she is looking. I think it is being used as some type of rudder. I have decided that there is something wrong with her vision plus she is sensitive to light, thus the squinting. She can open her left eye all the way but doesn't do it often. The right eye only opens about half way at the most. I am putting artificial tears in at least twice a day. She eats like a horse and poops like a horse. She seems to like to stand in the water. I put her in the Serama's night crate while I cleaned hers and put her water and food with her. I put the food a bit further away than it is in her basket and she had a fit when she drank some water and stepped over two steps expecting to find her food dish and it wasn't there. She's got spirit and is stubborn. And smart, she figured out how to get out of the makeshift pen I made and when I put her back in she went to where she had gotten out before and figured it out again.

Now she is 4 weeks old. Her neck is still crooked, her tail still askew, and she runs into things and wobbles. But she doesn't see well so running into things is expected. Her eyes bother me, it seems that there are perfectly good eyeballs but the lower lids don't work. They don't move, they cover her eyes half way and she makes all sorts of gestures in order to see above the lids. It probably bothers me more than her, but it can't be easy. Anyone know if there is something that can be done to help her eyes open more?

It's now been a little over a month and I thought that I should share some shots of my dear goose child. She still has problems seeing. Sometimes it takes quite an amount of time to "catch" the seeds on the end of a grass stalk but the stubborn thing won't give up until she does. She has no peripheral vision and if she is looking at something else (like me trying to catch her) she will run into and bounce off of things - hard! She will always have a crooked neck, but it seems stable. Most of the time her tail is proper, but if she is running away or reaching really tall to get something her tail kinks hard over - usually to the left. Her neck injury sets her neck to the right of what would be a normal spine alignment. Her head seems to be a funny shape, accented by what seems to be thicker feathers. I don't have picture, but right now she has obviously thicker feathers on her cheeks. They give the appearance of a man's mutton chop side burns. The grown-up goose is my buff girl.

It is with much sadness that I post that my special-needs young goose has passed. He was 10 months old and after we moved about 3 weeks ago he just didn't seem to thrive any more. Although he seemed to eat fine, he just wasted away. He had always been lightweight and quiet, I attributed to his mental and physical disabilities. But moving upset him. He located the food, water, and shelter. Played in the wading pool, and learned the new evening routine of being locked away (along with my buff goose) to keep them safe from night prowlers. I found him sometimes just staring the direction that my ducks and chickens are housed. They are set up in the corner of the property where my geese had the run of the back yard. Perhaps he missed them. I thought that I would take him on a walk in a few days so he could see where everything was. He really was never friendly with any of the ducks or chickens, they were more a disruption or folks who sometimes tried to pick on him. So I didn't think that he might have missed them in any way. I think he just missed what he knew and felt lost.

The area we moved to has a flock of geese and assorted ducks that belong to the neighbors who wander through the open areas, always returning to their home at night. My yard was a place they cut through on their way to other places. Although my young goose never showed any signs of disease, I suppose he simply could have been exposed to some germ or the other that the normal, healthier bunch were immune to.

My Buff seems a bit lost without him. She thinks she is a people, or at least maybe a dog, so she never much acted like he was a potential mate. But he was always there from the time she was about 2 months old (she is a month older than him) I am considering either another goose or perhaps some goose diapers so that she can hang out with me and the dogs in the house and go to town perhaps to visit people.

Rest in peace silly Billie goose. I loved you even though you didn't seem to notice much about any of us.

~ Billie Toulouse, May 10, 2016- March 22, 2017 ~

Sorry to hear about billy but sounds like while he was on this earth you took great care of him

So this morning, the day after I laid Billie to rest, the neighbor knocks on the door. She is the one whose flock used to roam the neighborhood. Turned out they ganged up on her uncle's prize winning gamecock and hauled him down to the pond and murdered him so now her geese are living someplace else. So this morning there is a goose in her yard, a Toulouse goose. Just sitting there as if it belonged. It's not one of hers, hers now live over 30 miles away. So she thinks it is mine. No, mine is gone I explain but I go and get it anyway as geese are not welcome there any more (there are still ducks but it seems like less than before) I go to get it. It won't walk and nips but doesn't bite down, and it hisses loudly. It seems to be hurt but perhaps not sick. It is definitely not one of her's, those of hers that I met were less than two years old. This one is mature. I think it is a girl so I named it Ruby. It hisses at dogs and if bothered, but seems content to watch what is happening from its dog crate in the corner. Maggie, my buff, hasn't met it and won't probably for at least a month. I hope it doesn't die - it would be twice the size hole as we needed for my other. If it lives then I don't need to get another to keep Maggie company. I still want some goose diapers though so that Maggie can travel and visit folks.

Im sorry for your loss.