ALL my geese are sick and 4 died so far :(

[marathonmultiplesmom]

Hello, I'm not 100%sure what is going on but given the fact that the geese and other orchard birds (some chickens and a turkey who is now dead from said sickness) are all sick right now. But the layers that they come in contact with regularly are not sick I am assuming that some wild animal or some external factor has contaminated their water. I also suspected they may have lice because one of the dead geese had little bugs crawling on her in her last hours.

Ok so I am giving them vitamins, brewers yeast, tetracycline and am dusting them for lice. I also tarped over the entire pond and am providing them fresh buckets of water a few times daily.

Is there anything else I can do or should look for? The only 2 bodies I examined did not seem to have anything out of place.... I am just so sad to see them ALL sick now. First think I notice is they were not quite as energetic, then a wing will droop, then two then they sit frequently then it becomes hard to walk and they are clumsy. Then they die. Being that 3 species are involved rules out species specific diseases. Only 1 bird in 10 infected seemed to recover after separation and vitamins/yeast treatment. That was a chicken. The geese now seem to be most affected. All the ones that died so far were the youngest but now the older ones are sick, too.

To top it off tonight is especially cold and snowy. I hope they are ok out there. They have lost weight but there is ABSOLUTELY NO LOSS IN APPETITE. Also, stool seems normal.

There is no chicken or water fowl specialist that I know of around here so taking them to the vet would not be helpful. Thanks for any knowledge you can pass on to me.

 

[BirdBrain]

Is there any chance a good worming is in order?

 

[marathonmultiplesmom]

yes they probably need it. I don't know when the last time is they have been wormed. I only had them less than a year - almost a year. Please tell me what to get for them! I am still kind of new to geese considering... I want to give them the best shot at survival.

 

[BirdBrain]

I wish I could tell you what to worm them with. I don't have geese yet. DH told me NO GEESE lastnight, so it will be atleast 6 months before I can persuade him otherwise.

However, there has been a good discussion recently on what to worm chickens with and the schedule to do that. I will see if I can dig up the thread. Be back in a bit.

 

[BirdBrain]

I found it....
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=420520

I sure hope someone else pipes in...someone with more experience with geese.

Of course more than "zero" could be just about anybody.

 

[marathonmultiplesmom]

ok, wasn't sure if chickens get the same as water fowl? I see you are in Alaska... we were thinking about maybe taking a cruise to check it out, maybe move there one day. Are you from there originally? Actually, I want to move to Alaska and DH wants to move to Texas and it used to be the other way around so one of these days we will agree and maybe move somewhere.

 

[marathonmultiplesmom]

Quote:
thanks! will look this over. Yes and if someone else knows what to use to worm geese with, please chime in... pretty please!

 

[BirdBrain]

We have lived here since 94 (my DH longer than that) with 6 years in Texas. DH and I are both from Texas. We love Texas, but there is NO comparison to Alaska. We jumped at the opportunity to return. Our allergies tripled when we arrived back in Texas 7 years ago. Of course we were close to the Gulf Coast and humidity as well as heat were high. Parts of Texas are absolutely the best. We figure we will retire back to Texas unless something better comes up. If you plan to visit Alaska, pm me and I'll see how I can help.

 

[marathonmultiplesmom]

Quote:
awesome, I will keep that in mind! Not sure when we will go but we were thinking of taking a cruise for our anniversary which is in the summer... but I wonder if winter would be a better time. I was reading about the polar day and night. I am a night owl so I imagine I would be extremely productive in winter

 

[BirdBrain]

June is typically the dryest month of the year. You might consider not taking the cruise and instead renting an RV from Great Alaskan Holidays (have nice new 1-2 year old RVs with everything you could want) and plan your own vacation. With major cruise lines you end up going to all their prescheduled places, staying at their hotels and eating at their restaurants. While these are nice tours, you might have something you really want to see or do and just can't due to time and location constraints. It is hard to get lost in AK as there aren't many highways. Get a copy of the magazine THE MILEPOST. It is the tourists dream come true. It tells you everything there is to see and do along the highway system as well as fly-in fishing and day cruises.