Goose in distress...egg bound?

[Tivona]

My female goose who is about 2 years old refused to leave her nest box this morning. I thought perhaps she was ready to lay for the first time (never laid last year although she was old enough and none laid this year yet). Checked on her at noon and found she had moved to the ducks nesting area in their pen. No surprise on that but she seemed to be in pain. Tail down and making kind of a whiny sound every few breaths. The sound is one she is making and not coming from her lungs. Her eyes look in pain.

My guess was perhaps egg bound with her first egg. I gave her a warm bath to soak in and she did drink as she soaked. After the water cooled down I took her out and patted her dry and she went back into the nest box and is there now. Before getting her out of the warm water I washed her vent and looked at it. It looks fine. No swelling or redness but put a bit of vitamin E oil on the outer part of the vent just encase it might help (didn't have KY). Her tummy is a bit firm and I 'may' have felt an egg. Really hard to know if it was an egg or not that I felt but I gently stroked her tummy going towards the vent for a little while.

I have never had a bird egg bound so I am just guessing here. Any thing else it might be that I should be looking at? Any other things I should try beyond more warm baths and just keeping her comfortable?

Got to say that her mate is being wonderful. Staying at her side and grooming her. Even was nice as I picked her up and put her in, and took her out of the big tub I had brought out for her warm bath. I think he is a bit worried about her as well.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Tivona you are the 3rd in a week to have this problem, I have not had to deal with it yet so can't help but did want to say there are some very knowledgable people on here that hopefully can. and I sent the link to your thread to haunted 55 since she went through this about a month or so ago and it ended sucessfully. Please know I will be thinking you you and your goose. just read this a few minutes ago,

sorry I am not very good on the computer so i have to copy all of it.

So sad I'm not sure if someone already posted this, but I had success with an eggbound goose last year by soaking her in a warm bath and then going in with olive oil as a lubricant. It's dangerous, but my girl was obviously not going to make it on her own. You have to be very careful not to injure the bird or damage the shell. I was able to guide it out and when I walked her back to the coop an hour later another egg fell out :/ I believe that this process saved her life. I hope that this thread can help other goose owners, knowledge is power

Did you actually squirt the olive oil up inside?
Living in the Beautiful Mountains of Western N.C.. with 16 chickens= EE's, Game, Cochin bantams,Light Brahma, 13Muscovy ducks, 1Embden Gander,1 Toulouse goose, 3 mini Dachshunds, 1 mixed breed, pond goldfish, and a wonderful Husband who makes it all possible..♥



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Living in the Beautiful Mountains of Western N.C.. with 16 chickens= EE's, Game, Cochin bantams,Light Brahma, 13Muscovy ducks, 1Embden Gander,1 Toulouse goose, 3 mini Dachshunds, 1 mixed breed, pond goldfish, and a wonderful Husband who makes it all possible..♥



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2 hours, 14 minutes ago

• opalwednesday
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I wore tight fitting nitrel gloves and got the olive oil all over them as a lubricant.

I actually went in and carefully guided the egg out. I used one hand on the outside to help guide it towards her vent. as I understand there is a high risk of infection if you damage the egg or the bird so it was a very slow process, also I went with her pushing, so we werent working against each other.
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[Haunted55]

My female goose who is about 2 years old refused to leave her nest box this morning. I thought perhaps she was ready to lay for the first time (never laid last year although she was old enough and none laid this year yet). Checked on her at noon and found she had moved to the ducks nesting area in their pen. No surprise on that but she seemed to be in pain. Tail down and making kind of a whiny sound every few breaths. The sound is one she is making and not coming from her lungs. Her eyes look in pain.

My guess was perhaps egg bound with her first egg. I gave her a warm bath to soak in and she did drink as she soaked. After the water cooled down I took her out and patted her dry and she went back into the nest box and is there now. Before getting her out of the warm water I washed her vent and looked at it. It looks fine. No swelling or redness but put a bit of vitamin E oil on the outer part of the vent just encase it might help (didn't have KY). Her tummy is a bit firm and I 'may' have felt an egg. Really hard to know if it was an egg or not that I felt but I gently stroked her tummy going towards the vent for a little while.

I have never had a bird egg bound so I am just guessing here. Any thing else it might be that I should be looking at? Any other things I should try beyond more warm baths and just keeping her comfortable?

Got to say that her mate is being wonderful. Staying at her side and grooming her. Even was nice as I picked her up and put her in, and took her out of the big tub I had brought out for her warm bath. I think he is a bit worried about her as well.

Do you have any Calcium with Vitamin D in the house? I use 500mg calcium with the 1000iu vitamin D, chewable, crushed and mixed in a little bit of water, maybe half to 3/4 of a cup.

 

[Haunted55]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/738201/goose-what-is-this-how-did-it-happen-what-do-i-do-about-it


Not sure if you've seen this thread but if you can please read through it. It has everything I went through in it and all the things I tried and what worked.

 

[Tivona]

Tivona you are the 3rd in a week to have this problem, I have not had to deal with it yet so can't help but did want to say there are some very knowledgable people on here that hopefully can. and I sent the link to your thread to haunted 55 since she went through this about a month or so ago and it ended sucessfully. Please know I will be thinking you you and your goose. just read this a few minutes ago,

sorry I am not very good on the computer so i have to copy all of it.


Did you actually squirt the olive oil up inside?

• opalwednesday
• 
• 

I wore tight fitting nitrel gloves and got the olive oil all over them as a lubricant.

I actually went in and carefully guided the egg out. I used one hand on the outside to help guide it towards her vent. as I understand there is a high risk of infection if you damage the egg or the bird so it was a very slow process, also I went with her pushing, so we werent working against each other.

Good to know that that can done. I hope I don't have to do that for her but I guess we will see tomorrow. I really don't want this to go on any longer then it has to for the poor girl. The slow process working with her muscles sounds like a good method if its needed. Thanks for copying it for me.

 

[Tivona]

Do you have any Calcium with Vitamin D in the house? I use 500mg calcium with the 1000iu vitamin D, chewable, crushed and mixed in a little bit of water, maybe half to 3/4 of a cup.

I think I do but will have to check. She has been eating oyster shell like crazy the last week which is one of the reasons I was thinking she was getting close to laying. She has often shown interest in playing mommy with the duck eggs as well for the last few weeks too but I am still guessing on her problem but the symptoms seem to fit as well as her timing of interests in nesting and oyster shell. I've read in the past about the vitamin D for birds being important but haven't really heard of giving it to them like this. Do you think that the calcium or the vitamin D did more help for your goose? I get the feeling your saying mostly the calcium and a bit of help from the D. I read that you only gave the calcium with the D once a day? Should I give just regular calcium to her after doing it with the D the first time or just go with the calcium and D together for a couple of days? I know I have powdered calcium without D, and I will be checking to see if I still have the pills with the D.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/738201/goose-what-is-this-how-did-it-happen-what-do-i-do-about-it


Not sure if you've seen this thread but if you can please read through it. It has everything I went through in it and all the things I tried and what worked.

I read over your post. Wow that picture is scary. I am glad your goose did so well with the calcium and D and warm baths and lube. I just hope my girl does as well. I checked her again just a bit ago and her vent still looks fine but her tummy is still hard and I swear it feels like an egg is up a bit near her pelvic bones. I will go back to giving her warm baths tomorrow and see how all this goes. It is so nerve racking seeing an animal in distress.

 

[opalwednesday]

I hope that things work out for you and your goose. On my second scare with egg binding my girl actually started to overheat from not taking in enough water. At that point I began force wattering her, just as much as she would lick down since you don't want to aspirate their lungs. Fr a moment her eyes went all grey and dead, I then stuck her in a bath of cold water to bring her temp down. As I understand warm water is better for getting the muscles loose, but the cold bath is critical if she begins to overheat (which is caused by not taking in enough fluids) . I hope that you can find enough help here to win the fight

also, it's interesting that you saw her chowing down on the oyster shell and knew. I saw mine eating all the sand that she could find right before she laid this years first egg, the poor thing, I had forgotten to refill her shell bucket.

 

[Haunted55]

I think I do but will have to check. She has been eating oyster shell like crazy the last week which is one of the reasons I was thinking she was getting close to laying. She has often shown interest in playing mommy with the duck eggs as well for the last few weeks too but I am still guessing on her problem but the symptoms seem to fit as well as her timing of interests in nesting and oyster shell. I've read in the past about the vitamin D for birds being important but haven't really heard of giving it to them like this. Do you think that the calcium or the vitamin D did more help for your goose? I get the feeling your saying mostly the calcium and a bit of help from the D. I read that you only gave the calcium with the D once a day? Should I give just regular calcium to her after doing it with the D the first time or just go with the calcium and D together for a couple of days? I know I have powdered calcium without D, and I will be checking to see if I still have the pills with the D.
I read over your post. Wow that picture is scary. I am glad your goose did so well with the calcium and D and warm baths and lube. I just hope my girl does as well. I checked her again just a bit ago and her vent still looks fine but her tummy is still hard and I swear it feels like an egg is up a bit near her pelvic bones. I will go back to giving her warm baths tomorrow and see how all this goes. It is so nerve racking seeing an animal in distress.

It's the calcium that does it, calcium works on the muscles, the vitamin D just lets the body absorbe it quicker and better. While you are giving her the calcium pills with D, only give her one a day, stop all other calcium supplements. Make sure the water is quite warm, just starting to turn your hand a bit red and let her float. This takes all of the stress off of those muscles and lets the body do it's thing. A little KY or vaseline on her vent could help her, it surely couldn't hurt. She needs to be in a warm place, my Lucy was in the house and since I heat with wood it was very warm. I don't know what your temps are like right now but if you have a way, other than bringing her inside, to heat her house, I'd give it a try. If you can't, here's an old trick....get some red bricks. The kind they build chimneys, houses, etc., just plain old red bricks. Heat them in your oven to about 250-325 degrees, wrap them securely in towels, blankets, whatever, and let her rest on those. The bricks will give off heat for a long, long time and will help the muscles relax and not tense up to stay warm. Just make sure there is a lot of padding between the bricks and her and it will be all good.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Tivona, how is your goose this afternoon?

 

[Tivona]

She died some time in the early morning.

I kept her warm and everything but it wasn't enough. All her symptoms, the lump I felt on her tummy near the pelvis and center, the repeated pushing motions of her vent, the pain, no eating, bright eyes, being fine the night before, all timed with her upping her eating of oyster shell and nesting behavior. I really thought it all lined up with the symptoms of an egg bound goose. Having not seen any of this before makes it so hard to really understand the problem.

Anyway, needing to know, I cut her open to check to see about the egg bound thing. No eggs in her at all. Part of her intestines were very dark, almost black, so perhaps she ate something late the day before all this started as she had been acting perfectly fine, eating normally, running around, etc. up till yesterday morning when I went to let them out. I think she was just clenching her muscles so hard to make that lump I felt. She was always loving to be held and petted and never had a lump there before but all of her tummy had been pretty firm when I had checked it. Its all so confusing and sad, It gives me some peace that while I made her comfortable it is unlikely that I could have saved her and that I did my best. I can't imagine what she could have eaten. She was a tad picky and I keep the yard pretty clean. My only guesses are either a mushroom or perhaps something near the neighbors that leaked over to my side. I have looked around but nothing I could find. I will be doing a better search tomorrow.

Her mate is looking so confused and sad but he seems to know that she is gone for good. He spent most of the day near my other female goose who is not his mate and was very good to her but clearly not himself. Last I looked he was just standing in the kiddie pool in the goose pen staring at his feet in the water. He barely looked up when I talked to him. I have the feeling that its just really starting to sink in. Know anything to cheer up a depressed gander?