hello, ok, this is probably a stupid question, but here goes. My Chinese gander has a small chip in the outer layer of the top of his beak. It didn't bleed or anything but since his beak is black, the chip is very obvious because it is a white spot. I think he hit his upper beak on my dogs upper canine tooth (don't worry, the goose is always the aggressor, and the dog always has its mouth open with tongue hanging out, wagging the tail and i have actually hit myself on the dogs canine tooth before) all i know is the goose(Buddy) was fine, he bit the dog's(Lily) lip, (Lily thinks Buddy loves to play the attack the puppy game which she actually enjoys too), then i noticed the spot maybe a minute later, so the only thing i can think is Buddy's beak hit Lily's tooth (Lily didn't bite him for sure, they have had the ritual every morning for two years, but he wasn't near anything else, and i have hit my hand, knee and nose on this dogs tooth before since she never closes her mouth so that is my best guess) . It is a very shallow wound. I can't even say for sure how deep because it is so shallow but maybe it is as deep as a finger nail is thick. it is maybe 1/8 inch wide and 1/4 inch long. i have tried googling and reading here but everything i find seem to be deep real injuries with blood and significant damage, not just little scrapes with no bleeding involved. and a vet seems to be a little extreme with a scrape (he hates people, cages, pretty much hates everything but water, grass, and attacking things). he doesn't appear to be in any pain and is acting like normal (eating, swimming, mean as ever). anyway, a small white area is exposed which i guess right under that would be nerves, blood vessels, tissue etc. is there anything i can do to encourage the harder black top keratin layer to heal quicker, as he attacks everything all the time, so it is very possible he could hit the same spot on something or someone and then end up with a real bleeding type wound? should i be worried about antibiotics with something so small, or is it ok to just watch to see if it looks like it is getting infected and then see a vet? Thanks, Rachel
My Emden gander just did the same thing but not on the dogs tooth, he's always so nosey no telling where he had his bill this time, I haven't done anything to this ones bill just watching it closely.. last year he did the same thing and it healed fine couldn't even tell he'd done anything, your goose should be fine just keep an eye on it.
I've had it happen to ducks. Like Miss Lydia, I just kept an eye on it and they were fine. I'm talking shallow nicks and scrapes -- never had a real injury to the beak involving bleeding, etc. I would suspect it would be fine. Geese seem pretty tough. I had two injuries last year due to thorny tree branches the goats pulled down. The worst one a gander stepped on it and the thorn went through the webbing and into the flesh over the bone. I had to catch him and pull the thorn out. I cleaned the wound, but without isolating him it was impossible to keep it really clean. I changed their swimming water more frequently than usual for a few days, kept an eye on it, and he was fine with that too.