Angel Wing Questions

[adrian]

Hello,

I have a young, month-old gosling who has developed angel wing. She is a wild breed, so I suspect the starter was too high in protein for her. She is on grass mainly now.

However, I have tried to fix it by wrapping the wing in bandage, but she started to destroy the feathers on the other side of her body. And they are all blood feathers, so she was a mess. I was worried that she'd pull a bad one and bleed to death, so now the bandage is off.

However, will angel wing correct itself if the protein percentage is ideal, after the next molt?

 

[shelleyd2008]

I am under the impression that angel wing will not fix itself. It turns the end of the wing out, so that is how it will grow. I have an 8 week old that has this also, so I'm trying to deal with it. Like you, I tried to bandage it, but it didn't work. I am wondering if cutting the long feathers will help, since the weight of them wouldn't be pulling on the wing. Hope you get it figured out, everyone says to tape it to the body to keep it inline. I would love to know how they do this, 5 minutes after I taped mine it had the wing out of confinement

Good luck.

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
I am one of those people that thinks it has very little to do with diet. I know of geese pasture fed the whole way that are getting it in droves. It will not fix itself, once deformed it can't go back. Perhaps you are using the wrong tape or taping wrong. I use medical micropore tape. And you need to tape well. You position the wing in the right position with everything tucked under then I run the tape over the deformed section and the section above for one or two turns then I continue but run it over the topmost part of the wing. You can leave it like that and not pinned to the body. If you pinned the wing to the body and they did that chewing I'd just do the wing the second time, if you only did the wing I'd then secure the whole wing to the body by wrapping completely around the bird. I found when I did the wing only they fussed alot less and had forgotten about it in a matter of hours. They feel more comfortable I have noticed when the wing is not pinned to their body and disturbing their ability to balance. 2 of my geese are on their second round of taping. Much of the time once works, but sometimes not and you have to do it again and even one more time. Some cases just refuse to correct no matter what you do.

If I had a bird pulling blood feathers due to the tape I'd show that little cuss what taping is all about and tape the crap out of it so it can't get to the blood feathers to pick them. LOL. You might be able also to devise a fabric glove type situation to place over it's body to protect the tape and the feathers.

You'll pull out some feathers when you remove the tape but they survive that and they hopefully get a good wing out of the deal.

 

[BlueMoon]

What is angel wing?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Windchyme ~~So it wouldn't help if I were to cut the long flight feathers on the goose? I had thought that since the problem seems to be that the feathers aren't folding back under properly, if they weren't there maybe it would be able to right itself? Or would it just go back to being wrong after they grow back?


Also, I'm having a bit of difficulty visualizing what you are saying about the taping, would you happen to have a pic?

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
I don't but I know where there is one. I assume everyone understands about getting the wing in the proper position and wrapping around the whole body so I'll give everyone to the link with just the wing.

http://www.longshadowfarms.com/FAQ.html#wing

Hope this helps...

On my variation, if you visualize a Z and the entire wing is the Z from where it connects in with the body all the way to the end and visualize the Z is squished flatter with the sections closer together, I first wrap around that bottom part (it would be the piece of the wing that is at the very bottom and is supposed to fold up under everything disregaring that little very last joint that is like a finger at the very end and considering it part of that whole lowest section)then up and around the middle piece about twice THEN I go all the way up over the top piece (that piece that connects in to the shoulder area)for a good 3-4 turns. It's probably overkill but I want it secure. Does this make it any clearer????

 

[BlueMoon]

Not sure...we have a young Toulouse gosling, named AirBus because of the way his wings stick out. This seems to have started as his wing feathers started to grow in. He walks around fine and does strectch out his wings. Should I be worried?

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
Well, they can live that way though it certianly impacts on their looks, and there is some evidence that perhaps it can cause them some level of pain (probably like arthritis). It does start as the wing feathers come in. You only have a limited amount of time to try and fix it. at a certian age the wings "set" and then they can't be corrected. I am not sure what that time is though I am giving a rough guess of 4 months or so, could be as much as 6 based on the development of the rest of the bird...just a guess.

 

[CindyS]

I use vetwrap on mine. wrapping the whole body is more uncomfortable to them I agree. but if you have a troublemaker that wont leave it alone, wrap a large area of the body, make sure the entire wing is covered, do not leave any wing feathers sticking out, and do not leave any loose edges on the wrap. If they still peck at it smear the tape in bag balm. if that dont work, give up.

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
I agree. If the little boogers wont leave it alone tape it all up away from their reach, maybe they'll learn when they are well off. I just untaped mine today (for the 2nd time) so far so good but that really doesn't tell me much as they are still stiff from being taped and it will take them a couple days to work out those wings. If they go south again I'll tape them up for a week, untape for a couple days to let them excersize then tape back up for another week, repeat for the next month until they are 4 months old. I figure if I can't correct it by 6 months old, they just aren't correctable.