UPDATE! Please help, Goose beak torn badly (pictures)

[nurse_turtle]

Quote:
Agree. I can't imagine she will be able to ingest adequate nutrition to support life. Unless you have the time and resources to feed her several times a day via syringe and maybe even have to administer water with a syringe. I know you don't want her starving to death. You may want to separate her so you can better measure her food and water intake. I wish you the best in making the decision that is best for both of you. Hugs and kisses for your goose....she fought hard.

 

[violetsky]

If you can't get her to the vet and want to give her a chance, I would get creative and rebuild
a lower beak. Maybe cast one in plaster off of another goose using model car type material or maybe
buy a creepy crawler kit and use the goo that hardens from that. Eye glass kits have very small screws.
In the meantime I would feed her using a straw. Put in a glass with warm sugar water, hold your thumb
on the end and try to get some down her. It's hard to find a good bird vet. I took a baby button quail in
with a broken leg, and the vet put an impossibly huge cast on the broken leg and broke the other leg
handling the chick. I read an article some years back where wildlife refuge near the shore the built a new beak for a pelican. You might google
that and see how they did it. Some sicko fisherman decided to debeak the competition.

 

[spish]

i agree with the above poster about some sort of artificial bottom beak being made, but i would do this with the guidence of a vet. is there any bird sanctuaries in the area that could possibly help if you dont have a vet in the area?
i think if you want to give her a chance she needs something covering the bottom half of the beak or her tongue will constantly be drying out.

if no 'replacement' beak could be made id be putting her to sleep if she were mine, that is an horrific injury, the more i look at it the more i feel bad for her... is there no lower beak left at all to work with?

 

[kari_dawn]

We use hoof epoxy to rebuild shells of turtles that come in hit by cars. It is getting harder to find hoof epoxy, but it is great stuff if you can get ahold of it. it is breathable, and sets quickly. Perfect for wildlife rehab...and wiggly geese. Molding a bottom beak off of another goose is a really good idea, but it helps if the injury is fresh. You can also use a wire mesh piece cut to size, and epoxied, and screwed into place. We do not like to use screws or wire peices when we rebuild turtles, and it makes it a bit more difficult, but it CAN be done. I cannot tell how much bottom beak you have left to work with from your pics though. The less you have the harder it will be, but from the side I can see, you have enough to work with. What does the other side look like? You could feasably use the structure already there, and create a cradle for her tongue, which would also make it possible for her to eat. It would help if you had access to a sedative though

We use ace promazine or xylazine most of the time.

 

[BigBird31]

the beak/face is a sensitive area would be good if it is tame and lets people touch that area.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Sadly I don't see there being much chance for a good recovery in this case, IMHO trying to keep the goose alive would be for the emotional attachment of the owner not for the good of the goose. Poster several above (#16) speaks of first hand experience with the exact same type situation where the goose untimatly had to be put down, unfortunatly that is likely the most responsible thing to do.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
I thought about the same thing (cast) this morning when I thought about this poor baby.

 

[ShellySA]

(sorry I posted this under goose forum instead of emergencies - will repost here........)
Best of luck with your poor goose.

My husband asked that I post this reply for you - hope it will help you (and others).........


Hi Dev

I’ve seen the photographs of the damage to your goose’s jaw it looks pretty bad. I’ve had two occasions when I’ve been part of a solution to problems like this. Once I rebuilt an African penguin’s lower jaw with quick setting epoxy and another time at the aquarium a sea turtle was repaired with the same material (it had been chopped by a ships prop) after a couple of months the poultice of white epoxy fell off to reveal that the keratin etc had recovered almost perfectly under the repair. My suggestion would be to use this material (it has a 5min set time) or to use a super glue repair kit some of which are supplied with various filler powder-fillers. Another suggestion is to find a lateral thinking dental technician - they have vast experience with and access to some amazing polymers (as well as familiarity with the maxiliary region). Why I’m suggesting this approach is because there is a group here in South Africa that specializes in repairing owls with damaged beaks (from being hit by cars and other causes) and one of them is a dental technician, - the beaks re-grow and they enjoy a high level of success.

Sincerely yours "Gozbird" (aka, Eric)

 

[Dev]

I was waiting for news either way before I posted an update. I am so happy to say that she is doing well, much better than I would have ever expected after seeing her beak that first day!

The Avian vet finally did call back but told me that he had never had any success with Geese or Ducks who beaks were broke or split as badly as my goose looked. He instructed to mix up a slurry of the feed she was use to eating and see if she would try to eat it on her own. If not, then I may try to tube feeding. I did not want to have to tube feed because her throat was so swollen and since by the second day she had managed to get her tongue to start staying up from falling through the lower beak. I didn't want to have to force her beak open to put the tube in causing whatever healing that has started to break loose again.

Once the swelling started to go down it seemed her beak took on a different shape. Where before I thought a lot of her bottom beak was gone, it actually wasn't. It was just pushed under from all the swelling. Once the swelling eased, her the bottom beak took shape and seem to set, anyway set to where she could keep her tongue up and out of the hole where the tissue was torn. I now notice that the hole that was originally there from the injury is also closing up slightly. I really believe that this is due to using the Vetericyn Wound Spray that I started applying the next morning. I sprayed her beak approx. every hour to two hours. I had to redo some of those times because she would dip her beak into her water or pool and wash it off, lol. That was ok, I was not going to pen her up or take her water away or remove her from getting into the pool with her mate. I wanted to change nothing about her usual day so as to not stress her out any further than the trauma she had went through. I really believe that, and with geese especially, keeping the animals usual routine the same, if at all possible, really helps in the healing process.

She stayed in her pool a lot during the day time until it was time to be put up for the night. She would walk the yard in between those times. She seemed to be doing well but I noticed she was not eating which really worried me and starting to sleep in her pool more than usual. I could not get her to even try her slurry. Then I had an idea... because she loves to stick her neck over the edge her pool to dig a hole of the wet mud caused by the spillage of water over the edges I thought to sit her bowl of slurry at the edge of her pool, thinking that maybe she would stick her head in it and eat. She ignored it the first few days, but today as I just happened to be watching her out the window, I saw her float to the side as normal to stick her head over to dig in the mud but this time she stuck her head in her bowl of slurry and started eating it, really eating it like she was starving!! Ok, if she prefers to sit in her pool to eat, fine with me, I will see if she will eat the daily treats in her pool water! The daily routine is that I treat my geese, chickens and turkeys to a vegetable mix of corn, peas, green beans, carrots, and old fashioned oats, cooked rice, and puff wheat. Since she was ignoring these feedings and not trying to eat with the rest of the animals I decided to throw a hand full of this mixture in her pool and see if it would make a difference. It worked, she started eating it too! Now I really believe she is going to make it. She is also nibbling on things like geese love to do and her bottom beak is staying together so far. Tomorrow I am going to small pieces of grass in the pool water to see if she will eat this, due to doing this I will just have to empty the pool and clean more often during the day so there won't be any food spoilage sitting in the pool. I normally empty it 2-3 times a day anyway, so a few more times won't be a problem, it is one of those baby pools that is easy to empty and clean.

I just want to add that since I cannot bring myself to kill any animal that I would never have put her down, BUT if I had thought she didn't have a chance of making it at all and was suffering I would have had someone come and put her down for me. I have been through too many things with animals to know that it may look hopeless at first but that doesn't mean it is hopeless. Just have patience and wait it out, if at all possible. The way she looked after the injury first happened was horrible and I understand why some people thought she should be put down...because by the 'looks' of it it did look like she would not be able to eat, I really thought so at first. I am really amazed at how well she is healing. I believe it has to do with a lot of things...keeping her stress free as much as possible, spraying the wound with Vetericyn to keep infection away, waiting and giving her time to adjust and adapt, and most of all a lot of prayer, thanks be to G-d!

She has a lot of healing to still do. It appears that what happened is something (cat, fence, dog or turkey...not for sure which it was) broke her bottom beak on the right side by pulling it until it broke and gave because the whole right side of her beak is pulled out of place. I believe this is probably what also caused the hole underneath the beak that her tongue came out of, because the tissue gave way and pulled loose from the beak as it was being pulled forward. As the swelling is going down the beak is returning back to shape but there will be some deformity, although now I do not believe it is going to cause any problems with her eating, thank G-d.

Again, thanks to everyone for your suggestions and help.

Some new pictures of her adapting and healing:

The damage can be seen in this picture while she has her mouth open..all her lower beak is there, it is just off set due to the swelling on the right side and there is a break half way in the right side but it appears to already be slowly adjusting and going back into place:

Playing in the mud

Her left side which looks normal, no injury:

Biting on one of her pools:

Drinking water:

Using her beak to dig in the mud!

My beautiful goosey!

 

[mrpekinduck]

I'm not sure if this is practical but I think you should take her to the vet in the morning but meanwhile put some electrolytes in her water. The vet will clean her up and then you can call a custom prosthetics place and see if they can make her a fake beak. This will definately be VERY expensive and not sure of what you're money situation is but this would be my guess. Hope she pulls through!

Brian