Our new Sebastopol gosling seemed to have a rough start. We acquired her the day she hatched and she seemed somewhat weak. We attributed this to her young age. She developed pasty butt and we noticed her umbilical cord hadn't fully fallen off. Her name was supposed to be Glinda, but the poor little thing was having so much trouble, her nickname became Wobbles and that's the name that stuck. Puppy pads were too slippery for her in the brooder, we had to switch to fleece for the first week or two. We had to put nutridrench in her water and bought a higher protein feed, trying to get her strength up. Her pasty butt wouldn't clear up, I was washing her at least 3 times a day. Then she lost her voice and when I held her and listened to her breathing it had a crackling sound. Off to the feed store again. Now we were putting the vetrx in her water and rubbing it behind her wings. I sprayed it into the brooder once a day. Luckily it worked. Her voice came back, the crackling sound went away. Finally she seems to be over all of her initial problems! Her feathers are almost all in, her wings are so heavy she is constantly adjusting them, amazingly we are avoiding the other scourge of young goslings, angel wing. Today I discovered a new foible of my poor little Wobbles. I had her and her brooder buddy, a duckling named Zoom, free ranging with our existing flock of year old ducks and Sebastopol gander while I collected eggs and refilled water containers. I turned around to find an upside down gosling give two last kicks of her legs, surrounded by the big ducks! Oh no! I dropped the hose, ran over to my ball of white fluff, gently turned her over and what had happened? The dear little idiot had gotten her head stuck under a wing while preening after a bath, panicked, and fell over. Now that my heart rate is back to normal, I can laugh. Through it all, the supportive community of Backyard Chickens was there, even if they didn't raise geese they still answered my cries for help and at least I knew someone cared enough to respond! Thanks everyone!
