Goose with feather defect

[PaoloP]

Hello everyone.

Three weeks ago I noticed a defect in the feathers on the neck of one goose. This has grown larger since then, as can be seen in the attached picture. The animal lives in a group of six Canada geese, all of which have tilting wings, at a small pond. Can you help me identify the problem so I can provide assistance if necessary. Here, in Germany, winter is not quite over yet and there are still three months until the moult. Thanks a lot

 

[SilverBirds]

They've got angel wing, which is where the wing joints twist due to a poor diet. Are these guys wild? For wild waterfowl, angel wing is usually caused by eating too much bread given by well-meaning but naive humans. Caught early on it can be corrected but it looks too late for them. They won't be able to fly and are likely to succumb to predators because of it. I suspect the broken feathers are also diet related, but it might be feather picking.

 

[PaoloP]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the whole flock has angel wings and they are wild ones. Concerning to me at the moment is the missing of big feathers on the upper back interdirection of the neck.

 

[SilverBirds]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the whole flock has angel wings and they are wild ones. Concerning to me at the moment is the missing of big feathers on the upper back interdirection of the neck.

The only thing that will fix that is a better diet and waiting for new feathers to come in after molting.

 

[Goosebaby]

That’s angel wing, unfortunately the condition is now permanent and it’s unlikely they’ll be able to fly. It’s usually caused by improper diet. If they were fed too high of carbohydrate rich foods, like bread, they filled up on it rather than on what they should have been eating in the wild.

Another possibility is that they were captured as goslings and raised by people who didn’t have a clue what to feed them, and then dumped when their health problems emerged or they got too large, noisy, and messy.

The extra black feathers on the base of the neck could just be a mutation.

 

[Goosebaby]

It also looks like the one could be getting bullied as it looks like its feathers have been repeatedly ripped out on its back. On closer look I think I see a few stress bars on some of it‘s feathers which indicates a severe nutritional deficiency or starvation while growing/molting.

 

[Goosebaby]

For clarification stress bars can also be caused by toxins, liver abnormalities, and sometimes certain medications used to treat parasites if given during molt, but in this case I’d say it’s a nutritional problem.

 

[PaoloP]

Thanks your very much for the ideas and advice so far. The condition of angel wing is known to me. It's bad but the goose has its Angel Wing buddies around at this pond and the flock is very defiant ant resolute so they protect against people who bother them.

Concerning to me is the missing of the feathers on the upper back. A person who also cares for them, told me this defect is present since November and it's growing. The person also saw smaller defects like this on the other geese, but it fortunately seem to have vanished or at least can't be seen at the moment.

At this point I think I will look how it is developing and weight with us decision to intervene since this would mean to part the goose from her flock. I'll try to take a better picture soon.

 

[PaoloP]

Here's another picture that I took today with the SLR. I don't know if it helps, but maybe one of you will recognize a detail. I also have more pictures.

 

[SilverBirds]

Here's another picture that I took today with the SLR. I don't know if it helps, but maybe one of you will recognize a detail. I also have more pictures.

A detail you've noticed, or what?