What kind of Goose is he?

[OhioStateCluckeyes]

This is Goose Springsteen (the Geese Street Band not shown)...

He's been living on my sisters farm since about 2008. Can you tell me what kind of goose he is? (Gander, is that the male term correct? But we call him a goose anyway!)

She's accumulated a flock of about 40 Canadian geese that live with him by the pond. Some are lame and some have broken wings and stay with her year round.

Lately he won't come up to the house and stays away from the main flock. He will honk at her if she calls to him but doesn't come up to the house like he usually does. She's worried about him. Any ideas?

Thank you for any help and information!

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Looks like a Pilgrim. I'm not an expert on breeds though.
@Goosebaby do you know? or know who to ask?

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

He looks like a possible Toulouse or mix to me - a Pilgrim gander should be mostly white. How many lobes does he have on his abdomen?

Is he of normal weight (when you feel his keel, is it prominent)? How does his poop look? Any other unusual behavior besides what you described?

Is it still breeding season there? If so, the other ganders may be keeping him away from the ladies.

 

[Goosebaby]

Unless you got them from a breeder you’ll probably never know what breed he is, the most we can say is that he’s a grey goose. He could be a toulouse, he could be a pilgrim, he could be a cross.
You can call him a production Toulouse. There are exhibition Toulouse, then there are production Toulouse which is a breed technically, but it’s also the lost and found bin we put every “grey” goose into when we don’t know what it is. Grey is the standard model color of all of most Anser anser derived breeds, so it can be hard to tell what breed a goose is if it’s grey.

If he’s avoiding the flock it could be because he isn’t feeling well, or he’s being bullied, but he could also be getting bullied because he’s not feeling well enough to stand up for himself. Not coming to the house anymore makes me think he is ill.
Have you seen him getting chased by any of the others?

He looks a little thin but it’s hard to say for sure, is he fed any feed or is he living off of pasture?

 

[OhioStateCluckeyes]

He looks like a possible Toulouse or mix to me - a Pilgrim gander should be mostly white. How many lobes does he have on his abdomen?

Is he of normal weight (when you feel his keel, is it prominent)? How does his poop look? Any other unusual behavior besides what you described?

Is it still breeding season there? If so, the other ganders may be keeping him away from the ladies.

He's a she. Best as we can tell. Because of the pilgrims being autosexing.
There is some diarrhea. No solid stool. But in the past few days it's hard to tell. She won't come off the pond.

 

[OhioStateCluckeyes]

Unless you got them from a breeder you’ll probably never know what breed he is, the most we can say is that he’s a grey goose. He could be a toulouse, he could be a pilgrim, he could be a cross.
You can call him a production Toulouse. There are exhibition Toulouse, then there are production Toulouse which is a breed technically, but it’s also the lost and found bin we put every “grey” goose into when we don’t know what it is. Grey is the standard model color of all of most Anser anser derived breeds, so it can be hard to tell what breed a goose is if it’s grey.

If he’s avoiding the flock it could be because he isn’t feeling well, or he’s being bullied, but he could also be getting bullied because he’s not feeling well enough to stand up for himself. Not coming to the house anymore makes me think he is ill.
Have you seen him getting chased by any of the others?

He looks a little thin but it’s hard to say for sure, is he fed any feed or is he living off of pasture?

My sister thinks he is ill as well. When he was coming out of the pond he was not walking well. I say he because that's what he's been called for years, it's habit.

He's not being bullied. He will honk back if she calls to him. Just won't come on land.

They feed corn to all the geese. So pasture and corn.

 

[OhioStateCluckeyes]

Unless you got them from a breeder you’ll probably never know what breed he is, the most we can say is that he’s a grey goose. He could be a toulouse, he could be a pilgrim, he could be a cross.
You can call him a production Toulouse. There are exhibition Toulouse, then there are production Toulouse which is a breed technically, but it’s also the lost and found bin we put every “grey” goose into when we don’t know what it is. Grey is the standard model color of all of most Anser anser derived breeds, so it can be hard to tell what breed a goose is if it’s grey.

If he’s avoiding the flock it could be because he isn’t feeling well, or he’s being bullied, but he could also be getting bullied because he’s not feeling well enough to stand up for himself. Not coming to the house anymore makes me think he is ill.
Have you seen him getting chased by any of the others?

He looks a little thin but it’s hard to say for sure, is he fed any feed or is he living off of pasture?

And her grandfather went to Missouri to buy from a breeder. But her grandfather passed so we don't know the breed.

 

[Goosebaby]

He's a she. Best as we can tell. Because of the pilgrims being autosexing.
There is some diarrhea. No solid stool. But in the past few days it's hard to tell. She won't come off the pond.

If she’s walking strange that tells me she either has a vitamin deficiency, she has some sort of metal poisoning, she has botulism, or she has something pressing on a nerve or neurological damage. Walking strange is serious.

How long has she been walking strange?

If you can corner and catch her she should be brought inside, confined, and weighed. I would put her on vitamins and worm her to start with. Safeguard for goats or horses works well against most worms. Putting her on a treatment for coccidia might be good, Corid (Amprolium) will work just fine. Sometimes if there’s a heavy parasite load it can interfere with vitamin absorption.

I would seriously encourage you to get her some vitamins, a B vitamin liquid complex and some sort of vitamin mix like rooster booster poultry cell or Poultry Nutri-drench, as well as some 6ml to 12 ml syringes to administer the vitamins orally.

If she has botulism she’ll need to be on an antibiotic called Metronidazole, that’s the standard antibiotic that treats most clostridium strains, it’s the toxins that cause the nuerological issues that cause botulism and the antibiotic won’t eliminate that, it only kills the bacteria producing it. Sometimes mass die off from the bacteria can overload the body with toxins “herxing” which is another issue.
If it’s a low level infection it will progress slowly starting with the legs, if it’s a severe infection it will start with the legs and spread to the upper body, lungs, and head quickly. There is an antidote to the toxin but you would need to take her to the vet to get it.

Activated charcoal can help to some degree by cleaning out the digestive tract, it can also help if she’s swallowed some sort metal or paint, like something made with zinc. The calcium in milk can also help bind zinc particles in the digestive tract but it will also cause intense diarrhea, birds can’t digest lactose.

If she has metal toxicity or if there’s some internal issue like a tumor pressing in her nerves that is an issue that only a vet can treat, if at all unfortunately. Botulism is a more serious illness that honestly should be dealt with by a vet also, it can be treated at home if it’s a low level infection and you have everything needed to treat it, but that’s still questionable.

As things are definitly bring her inside get her B vitamins and a mix of vitamins in general and worm her.

What feed is she eating if any?

 

[OhioStateCluckeyes]

She forages and gets corn.

 

[Goosebaby]

She forages and gets corn.

I’m thinking she most likely has a vitamin deficiency. Corn is a poor source of nutrition, so her primary nutrition comes from whatever she’s likely to find while foraging which is highly variable.
She needs B vitamin complex, a mix of general vitamins so that she’ll recover, but she needs to start being fed a waterfowl, multi flock, all flock, or flock raiser type feed. Something like Purina flock raiser or something with 20 to 22% feed. Worming her just Incase might be good too.

For now she would actually do well on something as high as 30% protein to help her recover faster, game bird feed or turkey feed.

The issue I think is a common mistake, it’s assumed she can survive off of what a wild goose can, but she can’t. Wild geese are small, domestic geese have become larger and so have their needs. It would be like expecting a Clydesdale to survive on what a zebra can live on, it just can’t.
It also raises the probability of her catching an illness or a parasite and the condition affecting her far worse.