Gander has white watery poop all the time, help!

[Jenbirdee]

He eats and acts well but all his poops are mostly white watery stuff with some little white stringy bits and sometimes partially good poop mixed in there. So I've been putting garlic infused apple cider vinegar in his drinking water for a week now, and don't know if it's going to solve the problem or not. I would like to know what else I can give him (ivermectin?) so I don't have to take him all the way to the only vet I know that sees waterfowl, it's a long trip and I know my gander will not be happy traveling and will likely not be nice to the vet, seeing we are in the middle of breeding season and his wife will be left home alone while he is gone

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey try some dry oatmeal may help firm him up lay out a big bag like 1 bag then a week later another

 

[The goose girl]

Without his wife he'll probably be as nice to the vet as he would be outside of breeding season - they're only jerks to protect their females.

 

[Goosebaby]

Could you post a picture of some of his droppings?

I know “bubbly” droppings can indicate a bacterial infection, not all bacterial infections will look like that but some do from what I’ve heard.

White urates are a sign the kidneys and liver haven’t lost function, but too much of the white says the kidneys are working overtime.

 

[Jenbirdee]

yes! it is bubbly! I can try to get a pic tomorrow. I was wondering if I call my local vet who sees my dogs, (but not waterfowl) I wonder, maybe they would test a sample for me, but would they even know what they are looking for? In other words, when they test dog or cat samples, do they even look for the same kinds of bacterias that a goose could have? I could call and ask them tomorrow, but maybe it's not worth it, because they couldn't prescribe anything anyway. I may need to take Charlie (my gander) on a road trip to the vet who does see waterfowl, sigh

 

[Goosebaby]

yes! it is bubbly! I can try to get a pic tomorrow. I was wondering if I call my local vet who sees my dogs, (but not waterfowl) I wonder, maybe they would test a sample for me, but would they even know what they are looking for? In other words, when they test dog or cat samples, do they even look for the same kinds of bacterias that a goose could have? I could call and ask them tomorrow, but maybe it's not worth it, because they couldn't prescribe anything anyway. I may need to take Charlie (my gander) on a road trip to the vet who does see waterfowl, sigh

From my own expierience with vets they won’t do anything if they don’t see birds to begin with, sometimes even avian vets will even refuse to see “poultry,” a lot of vets aren’t what they used to be.
As for tests some parasitical and bacterial infections that cause illness in birds can cause illness in other animals, strep, staph, coccidia, toxoplasma, raccoon roundworm, worms in general, botulism are some examples that a dog/cat vet technically could test for. Other illnesses that are more avian specific they probably wouldn’t know to look for, like ornithobacteriosis, fowl cholera, psittacosis for example.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Charlie's bubbly poo

 

[Goosebaby]

Charlie's bubbly poo

Yeah it looks like somethings going on there, normal goose droppings look like little logs with a white cap on one end, the occasional caecal puddle, runny ones if they’ve been drinking a lot or eating really watery foods like watermelon, which are more common with geese than other birds.
The bubbles are a little concerning.
Droppings can be hard to gage sometimes though, like for example one of my ganders “Parsnip” has pancreatic issues so his droppings look like he’s dying all the time even though he’s more or less fine and the rare times he actually has normal goose logs are the days he feels so sick he doesn’t even want to move. Basically with birds if it’s not normal for what you’re used to seeing then there’s a problem.
Things you absolutly never want to see in droppings are red, black, nuclear yellow or green urates/urine, foamy yellow “like uncooked scrambled eggs,” and undigested feed.

One thing you could try in the mean time is adding fresh crushed thyme and oregano to his water “it’s a lot cheaper than getting the oils” to boost his immune system, plus they’re antibacterial and antiparisitic.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Dry oatmeal will go along way to help that

 

[Jenbirdee]

Thank you so much. Well I did put out a big bowl of dry oatmeal, and Charlie has been eating freely from my big potted herbs all year, thyme, oregano, sage, the and rosemary. But I also went ahead and scheduled a vet appointment for the day after tomorrow. So we will find out for sure what’s going on and hopefully how to correct it. I will post again after the vet visit. thank you friends