??? What's this on my face...???

mightymax said:

Hi everyone!

About a week and a half ago, I was holding my Amer. Buff gander, Gus, on my lap when I happened to notice this patch of what looked to be 'wet'
feathers under and along the side of his left eye. Upon closer examination I found that the feathers there were not wet at all, they just looked that way from a distance. I felt it and there is no lump or abrasion, nor does it appear to bother him. The feathers in that area as you all know are kinda like
fuzzy fur, so when I tried to part them to take a look at the skin underneath, I really couldn't see anything. Any idea what this might be? I'm a little concerned that it could be ringworm as it appears rather shiny on the surface (to me anyway) and is oval in shape. I'm going to post a picture of it later, so maybe someone could help me figure out what it is and whether I should take him to the Vet. or not.

Thanks!
-kim-

Click to expand...

mightymax said:

I didn't see anything, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's nothing there...lol !!! My eyes ain't what they used to be, that's for sure. Anyway, he wouldn't let me get a good picture of his right eye (I know that I said left at first...I was mistaken), but I did get a good picture of the same type of patch that's he also has on his bill line on his LEFT side.
I know that on humans, ringworm forms a scaly, slightly raised circular patch and it's that way on cats too, so I'm assuming it'd be the same on geese but IDK...
And ringworm isn't really a worm at all...it's a fungus that can be transmitted in dirt.

Click to expand...

The goose girl said:

I can't see anything wrong with the surroundings of his eye in the picture?

If anything, his nictitating membrane may appear a little swollen, but it could just be that he's looking back.

I've enclosed a few close ups of my goose's eyes for comparison:


Disregard the black "lid", it's just a shadow.





She injured her right eye, so the pupil is weird, but otherwise her eye is healthy. Here you can see more of the nictitating membrane because she's looking back a bit.

Click to expand...

mightymax said:

Thanks for your input Miss Lydia !!! As soon as I read "...some kind of fungal medication but what?" in your reply, a little light bulb went on in my
head and I remembered back to my zoology classes and how we would diagnosis ringworm on animals by taking them into a darkened room and
shining a black light on the affected area. If they did indeed have ringworm, it would show up as a bright candy apple green color thanks to the
black light! And while reminiscing about the olden days, I also recalled what is used to treat it. Clotrimazole, a medicated prescription fungal cream that you apply directly to the skin at the site of the ringworm. And what's nice about this cream is that it's actually one of the recommended treatments
for ringworm in animals, so I don't have to worry about it harming my boy Gus, regardless of whether it turns out to be ringworm or not (unless, of
course, he snatches it and tries to run off with it while at the same time also trying to eat it, like he does a good number of inedible or 'not for goose' items I have laying around in various places...lol !!!). That brings up another thing to put on the 'Pro' side of the pros and cons list for having/getting/keeping
geese...my workroom and garage have never been so organized since I've gotten geese! I'd even have to say that it's downright tidy in there now. The amount of stuff they find fun to play with, or just find fascinating to 'beak' to death incessantly, never ceases to amaze me !!! I learned real quick that it wasn't enough to just sweep the floor with a broom because after you've swept, you can't just lean it on a wall somewhere to hopefully remember tomorrow where you put it...No...now you have to have what's called follow through. Not only do you have to put the broom away when done, but you also must put it either in a place that is out of their reach or behind a closed and locked door or later you might find them ganged up on the bristles
trying to terrorize them by, you guessed it, 'beaking' them to death.

-kim-

P.S. Sorry about the derailing of the topic but it's just that I love my geese so much that sometimes I get carried away. But, thank you and yes, I will put some cream on it in the morning after he takes his morning bath.

Click to expand...

Miss Lydia said:

Love those close ups. gg how did she injue her eye?

Click to expand...

The goose girl said:

I'm pretty sure one of my two cats scratched her. Although she's been living with the cats since the day she hatched, she never liked them much and loves to bite them. They usually don't mind, but if she grabs on to an ear it hurts.

Up until she started laying, she slept with me in my bed. And so did the cats. So I guess she woke up early one morning, felt bored and decided to chew a little cat to pass time. And the cat tried to defend itself to get away. When I woke up, she kept her right eye closed.

Luckily the vet was able to save the eye and her sight. The cornea was almost broken through, but the vet cleaned it up and sewed her eyelids together to let the eye heal without rupturing.



I administered antibiotic salve to the eye three times a day (that's why her head looks greasy), and she was only allowed to bathe in clean, fresh water. The stitches were removed after two weeks, and by then her eye looked like this:



The cloudy spot vanished after several months.

Click to expand...