Critical Situation Now: What Dose Vitamin E/Polyvisol for Gosling?

[Omniskies]

I was given an African gosling with a twisted neck. When she tries to stand she tumbles over backwards and even when swimming(ish) in the tub she always leans to one side before going belly up. So for the past week I've had a gosling that can't stand in a box by my side at all times.

She is alert and eats and drinks. Our feed store doesn't offer waterfowl feed, so I usually use a non-medicated gamebird feed. When I got her our feedstore had Nutrino gamebird feed with a higher protein. I grabbed that, fed her a bunch...and found out the feedstore gave me the wrong bag of feed. So she gorged on medicated chick starter.

She keeps losing weight and now has a head tick. I've been putting vitamins in her water and I'm wondering if she has a vitamin E deficiency and read that Polyvisol may give her a boost.

Today she became less interested in eating a drinking, so I now want to jump on another form of treatment before giving up. She's asleep in my arms right now and her eye keeps ticking (her head isn't moving).

Another thing, when she eats or drinks she looks like a sock puppet. She will open her mouth all of the way and chomp down, then keep chomping as she lifts her head. It looks just like a puppet pretending to eat and drink.

Would Polyvisol help? If so, at what dose? She's about two months old but can't weigh more than a pound or two as of today. She isn't feather-light, but she's very close.

Being a Sunday, the only thing open today is a Wal-Mart (and grocery stores, probably a couple Walgreens). I'll be leaving the house in a half hour. Any suggestions on what to get is great.Si

 

[Omniskies]

The neck is now completely curled up and she's having trouble stretching or holding her neck up long enough to eat and drink. She doesn't seem to be in pain and she is still alert, even if she's spending most of her time sleeping now. She just doesn't seem strong enough to move her neck.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Oh dear... I don't know!!! But I hope someone sees this and can help you out!
:aww

 

[chickygirl2]

I had this happen to a canadian gosling 2 times-same gosling. What did the trick was a small amount of prednisone. I happened to have a couple tablets left from a poison ivy outbreak. It took a few days. It happened 2 x as I said, but never again.

 

[chickygirl2]

Here is a link to a discussion about prednisone and silkies:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=88503

Scroll down to where Diana [dlhunicorn ] gives you a link to click.

 

[chickygirl2]

How is the gosling?

 

[Omniskies]

She's not any worse, but she still can't stand and isn't really gaining the weight back. She's eating and drinking on her own again, although she still looks like a sock puppet when she does.

After reading the links I'm trying three 200mg liquid vitamin E capsuls that are squirted into her mouth twice a day. I have some Polyvisol, as well, but since she's getting vitamin water and six vitamin E pills I don't want to over-do it with that. It's mostly in reserve for if the pills don't work.

I've been doing physical therapy with her in the bath tub, letting her swim around (on her side) to exercise her legs and get her out of the towel she's wrapped in. Whenever she isn't wrapped up she'll stretch her legs out behind her while standing and will make a mess of everything.

 

[DuckLady]

You should start her on either avian vitamin supplements or poly-vi-sol right away.
I would start with 5 drops of P-V-S twice a day for 5 days to get a good dose in her and then taper off to 5 drops once a day for another 5 days.
It sounds like a vitamin b defiency. You can try sprinkling brewers (or nutritional) yeast on her feed to get that level up.

Make sure her feed is fresh. Is she feathering out? If not or if it is slow, you might want to put her back on non medicated gamebird or turkey starter.

 

[Omniskies]

I have her on non-medicated gamebird crumble again. I thought it was a vitamin E deficiency, I'll swap to the vitamin B and start giving her some Polyvisol.

Can she take the vitamin E pills in addition to the Polyvisol you recommended? I've been giving her three 200mg liquid pills twice a day.

I forgot how slowly goslings feather out. She's probably closer to three months of age. She still has some tufts clinging to her neck, but otherwise she's fully feathered out.

 

[dlhunicorn]

When giving vit E you should give the combo tab with selenium as the two are interdependent on each other (just make sure the selenium content does NOT exceed 50 MICROgrams per tab) give at the reccomended amount per the silkie article treatment by Alan Stanford (the prednisone is only for the brain inflammation that accompanies a head injury and will not be useful otherwise) this will be a gel tab that you p r i c k open and squeeze out the contents and can be found at some agway and walmarts...
.... if you can find a liquid B supplement instead of the polyvisol (also per Alans treatment regime) that is better as vit A is retained (as is E and selenium also which is why it is important to follow the dosage regime in that article) and in excess can interfere with vit E.