wildharvesthomestead
In the Brooder
- Jul 1, 2025
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[cross-posted from the illnesses forum]
Hi! Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Having a mystery leg issue with one of my American Buff goslings, appx. 11 weeks old. It's mystified a farm vet and an avian vet so I'm really hoping someone here has some insight or experience with similar. Sorry, this will be long.
She arrived from Metzer Farms in mid-April. I had ordered two but one died in transit. I'm unsure as to why. Of note perhaps is that the surviving gosling (Blake) was a lot bigger than the two I had delivered the following week, although they were all American Buff day-old goslings.
From day 1 they were all fed Mazuri waterfowl starter. As soon as it warmed up enough they had supervised outings in a puppy playpen in the grass to graze. Maybe an hour at a time whenever it was nice out.
Blake seemed fine for a few weeks. Then one morning she woke up severely limping. No visible injuries. At the time they were in a brooder in my bathroom on a non-slip surface. Not much for her to injure herself on. The limp persisted for a few days, then resolved. I added extra niacin, B vitamin drops, and nutritional yeast to her diet, just in case. She's been on all of these things for the past probably 6 weeks.
Despite this, she went on to have a couple more minor limping episodes, always on the one leg, always waking up with it. It would always spontaneously resolve after a few days of rest. Seemed like maybe a sprain that never fully healed--the limp would always worsen when she walked (or tried to run) on it. Everything I read suggested that it was a soft tissue injury that just needed more time to heal, so we didn't call a vet since it seemed to be improving. We wondered whether since she's always been such a babyzilla of a goose, and the weather was so cold for so much of this spring, whether she just grew faster than she could strengthen the leggies (we had them outside the brooder for about 3 hours a day with splashies in the bathtub but they were mostly stuck in that bathroom) but it seemed odd that it would be just the one leg affected if so. The other two (also American Buff, also from Metzer Farms) show no signs of any of this.
During one of these episodes, her hock (ankle) joint was very swollen, and the limp took a little longer to resolve. After a few days the swelling went down and a few more days after that she was walking. Over the next several days the limp lightened and then vanished entirely. For about three wonderful days I couldn't tell which of the 3 geese was her from a distance because they were all walking normally.
Then, overnight, she went from this apparent total recovery to being 100% unable to walk on the left leg. Again, she went to bed totally fine and then woke up hopping. This was the worst the leg had ever been, so I called a vet.
We're lucky enough to have a farm vet in our area, but she was unable to diagnose anything. She thought maybe the stifle joint (knee) was fractured and sent us 90 minutes away to an extremely well-reviewed avian vet for an x-ray and blood workup. The vet took two x-rays which showed nothing, no fracture, no dislocation, nothing. Kidneys and liver numbers were good. But Blake's white count was high, and now she had a hard swelling on the stifle joint and an almost total loss of appetite, so the avian vet suspected a bacterial infection and performed a joint tap. Meanwhile she put Blake on meloxicam and clavamox.
Over the next week while we awaited the results of the joint tap, Blake's appetite improved and she began getting restless in confinement (a pop-up pet playpen in our office) but still had zero ability to use that left leg. She can't walk, she can't push herself up to standing unless she gets the wings involved. She can stand on one leg with the bad leg just touching down for balance, but she won't put weight on it. She stretches the left wing out but doesn't stretch the leg with it like she used to. The most we've seen her use the left leg for is to try and scratch her face while preening, and she can almost almost reach, so it doesn't seem like a dislocation or break (and the x-ray should have shown that anyway). The fact that she seems to be feeling better otherwise suggests to me that it was in fact a bacterial infection and that the clavamox is bringing it down.
Just heard back from the vet. The joint tap grew nothing in two plates. After nearly $2000 for x-rays / bloodwork / joint tap, she has no idea what it could be beyond "something autoimmune," and that she's "reached the limit of what [she] can do diagnostically." She said she can refer us to Cornell (3 hours each way) for a CT scan in case it's some manner of nerve issue in her spine, but she thinks it's vanishingly unlikely that such a thing would present with swelling and elevated WBC. I'll continue her on clavamox and meloxicam in case they're helping, and we're working on perfecting a goosey therapy wheelchair. I'm adding turmeric to her water for the anti-inflammatory properties. We had to keep the joint tap site dry for 6 days after the procedure but we'll see how she does in the water later this evening. The last time I saw her walk on that left leg was about 10 days ago. I suppose it's possible she still has a sprain that's just taking a long time to heal, but the strange thing is that the swelling was in the hock joint during her last episode and in the stifle joint now. The swelling is localized and hard and doesn't feel like fluid. It's hard to tell how much of the inability to walk is due to pain and how much is due to severely limited range of motion due to the swelling. Apart from the leg she's starting to seem more like herself, which I'm unsure whether is the clavamox working or just the episode beginning to resolve. But she still can't use the leg.
Spoke with a third vet who does not see geese but who thinks that the avian vet's clavamox dosage (375mg every 8 hours) is alarmingly high for a ~7lb goose. So now I'm concerned that if I continue her on the clavamox it will do more harm than good.
Thanks if you've read this far. I guess I'm just hoping someone here had something similar happen and came out the other side of it. She is the sweetest and bestest goosey goose and I really, really, really don't want to lose her. If she's a disabled house goose for life, we can figure out how to work with that. I just need some kind of idea how to help her.
Hi! Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Having a mystery leg issue with one of my American Buff goslings, appx. 11 weeks old. It's mystified a farm vet and an avian vet so I'm really hoping someone here has some insight or experience with similar. Sorry, this will be long.
She arrived from Metzer Farms in mid-April. I had ordered two but one died in transit. I'm unsure as to why. Of note perhaps is that the surviving gosling (Blake) was a lot bigger than the two I had delivered the following week, although they were all American Buff day-old goslings.
From day 1 they were all fed Mazuri waterfowl starter. As soon as it warmed up enough they had supervised outings in a puppy playpen in the grass to graze. Maybe an hour at a time whenever it was nice out.
Blake seemed fine for a few weeks. Then one morning she woke up severely limping. No visible injuries. At the time they were in a brooder in my bathroom on a non-slip surface. Not much for her to injure herself on. The limp persisted for a few days, then resolved. I added extra niacin, B vitamin drops, and nutritional yeast to her diet, just in case. She's been on all of these things for the past probably 6 weeks.
Despite this, she went on to have a couple more minor limping episodes, always on the one leg, always waking up with it. It would always spontaneously resolve after a few days of rest. Seemed like maybe a sprain that never fully healed--the limp would always worsen when she walked (or tried to run) on it. Everything I read suggested that it was a soft tissue injury that just needed more time to heal, so we didn't call a vet since it seemed to be improving. We wondered whether since she's always been such a babyzilla of a goose, and the weather was so cold for so much of this spring, whether she just grew faster than she could strengthen the leggies (we had them outside the brooder for about 3 hours a day with splashies in the bathtub but they were mostly stuck in that bathroom) but it seemed odd that it would be just the one leg affected if so. The other two (also American Buff, also from Metzer Farms) show no signs of any of this.
During one of these episodes, her hock (ankle) joint was very swollen, and the limp took a little longer to resolve. After a few days the swelling went down and a few more days after that she was walking. Over the next several days the limp lightened and then vanished entirely. For about three wonderful days I couldn't tell which of the 3 geese was her from a distance because they were all walking normally.
Then, overnight, she went from this apparent total recovery to being 100% unable to walk on the left leg. Again, she went to bed totally fine and then woke up hopping. This was the worst the leg had ever been, so I called a vet.
We're lucky enough to have a farm vet in our area, but she was unable to diagnose anything. She thought maybe the stifle joint (knee) was fractured and sent us 90 minutes away to an extremely well-reviewed avian vet for an x-ray and blood workup. The vet took two x-rays which showed nothing, no fracture, no dislocation, nothing. Kidneys and liver numbers were good. But Blake's white count was high, and now she had a hard swelling on the stifle joint and an almost total loss of appetite, so the avian vet suspected a bacterial infection and performed a joint tap. Meanwhile she put Blake on meloxicam and clavamox.
Over the next week while we awaited the results of the joint tap, Blake's appetite improved and she began getting restless in confinement (a pop-up pet playpen in our office) but still had zero ability to use that left leg. She can't walk, she can't push herself up to standing unless she gets the wings involved. She can stand on one leg with the bad leg just touching down for balance, but she won't put weight on it. She stretches the left wing out but doesn't stretch the leg with it like she used to. The most we've seen her use the left leg for is to try and scratch her face while preening, and she can almost almost reach, so it doesn't seem like a dislocation or break (and the x-ray should have shown that anyway). The fact that she seems to be feeling better otherwise suggests to me that it was in fact a bacterial infection and that the clavamox is bringing it down.
Just heard back from the vet. The joint tap grew nothing in two plates. After nearly $2000 for x-rays / bloodwork / joint tap, she has no idea what it could be beyond "something autoimmune," and that she's "reached the limit of what [she] can do diagnostically." She said she can refer us to Cornell (3 hours each way) for a CT scan in case it's some manner of nerve issue in her spine, but she thinks it's vanishingly unlikely that such a thing would present with swelling and elevated WBC. I'll continue her on clavamox and meloxicam in case they're helping, and we're working on perfecting a goosey therapy wheelchair. I'm adding turmeric to her water for the anti-inflammatory properties. We had to keep the joint tap site dry for 6 days after the procedure but we'll see how she does in the water later this evening. The last time I saw her walk on that left leg was about 10 days ago. I suppose it's possible she still has a sprain that's just taking a long time to heal, but the strange thing is that the swelling was in the hock joint during her last episode and in the stifle joint now. The swelling is localized and hard and doesn't feel like fluid. It's hard to tell how much of the inability to walk is due to pain and how much is due to severely limited range of motion due to the swelling. Apart from the leg she's starting to seem more like herself, which I'm unsure whether is the clavamox working or just the episode beginning to resolve. But she still can't use the leg.
Spoke with a third vet who does not see geese but who thinks that the avian vet's clavamox dosage (375mg every 8 hours) is alarmingly high for a ~7lb goose. So now I'm concerned that if I continue her on the clavamox it will do more harm than good.
Thanks if you've read this far. I guess I'm just hoping someone here had something similar happen and came out the other side of it. She is the sweetest and bestest goosey goose and I really, really, really don't want to lose her. If she's a disabled house goose for life, we can figure out how to work with that. I just need some kind of idea how to help her.
