Goose is acting odd, and has a very cold beak

[lbradleyaz]

My goose has stopped eating and her beak is cold. she stands or floats, she drinks and that's pretty much it. I can tell she is off but don't know what to do. She still loves snuggling. I have seen her shake her head and vomit once last night and once today.

As of today she has extra vitamin b, electrolytes, and nutridrench in 2 different water buckets. Changing them daily. She is quarantined inside so I can monitor activity and poop...none today..all just water coming out. Has peas and watermelon and mazuri waterfowl. Tried romaine yesterday but she wasn't interested though she did scoot her food around a little last night. Gave her a dose of safeguard and baytril to try to combat anything else. I could use any insight or suggestions.

Thank you.

 

[Goosebaby]

Symptoms like these are very non specific, I’ve been in this situation and it’s incredibly frustrating, a vet would be the best option to figure out what is wrong but I’ll help with as much information as I can.

How old is she?

How long has her symptoms been going on?

Could she have gotten into anything toxic or swallowed any bits of metal?

Is there any stagnant water or compost heaps around that she has access too?

Have you noticed abnormal breathing sounds? Wheezing, gurgling, or sneezing, snicking, or labored breathing?

Does her abdomen/ butt look or feel bigger than usual?

Does she have an sores on her feet or elsewhere on her body?

Has it been hotter than usual where you are?

Has she still been laying in the last few days?

Are you able to weigh her or feel her keel? I can guess she’s lost weight not eating but if her keel feels like a pronounced thin blade sticking out from the rest of her body she’s emaciated and has been losing weight for awhile.

One possibility could be coccidia, it causes them to go off their food and in geese sometimes doesn’t have obvious symptoms like blooody diarrhea because it tends to target the kidneys more often than the digestive tract.

Other possibilities could be an infection, Baytril is a good broad spectrum antibiotic that can tackle a lot of things, but no antibiotic treats all so without testing for bacteria it’s hard to say if it is the right one for the job.

Worms are a possibility too.

 

[lbradleyaz]

Goose baby. Thank you. I should have included all that in my initial post, I know better. Answers are after the copy of your questions below.

How old is she? She is 3 years old

How long has her symptoms been going on? About 3-4 days

Could she have gotten into anything toxic or swallowed any bits of metal? It's possible but we do keep our yard pretty picked up as we know they tend to be curious. We did have some branches fall off our eucalyptus tree. I didn't see them around the tree while it was on the ground (about a day), but this would be the only known toxic thing.

Is there any stagnant water around that she has access too? No. I refill all water every day or in the larger bathing tubs we have aerators and refill them every 3 days

Have you noticed abnormal breathing sounds? Wheezing, gurgling, or sneezing, snicking, or labored breathing? Nothing out of normal.

Does her abdomen/ butt look or feel bigger than usual? Not that I can tell

Does she have an sores on her feet or elsewhere on her body? None that I clhave seen or felt. I did notice her feet looked a little scaly last night, was going to see if that could be a symptom

Has it been hotter than usual where you are? We had a heat wave about 2 wks ago but the past week has been cooler, more humid and rainy.

Has she still been laying in the last few days? No

Are you able to weigh her or feel her keel? I can guess she’s lost weight not eating but if her keel feels like a pronounced thin blade sticking out from the rest of her body she’s emaciated and has been losing weight for awhile. I do not feel her keel bone. I did weigh her 2 days ago but haven't since. I'm sure she is losing some weight but she still feels sturdy when I pick her up. I'll weigh her again today.

I will take her to the vet this week if I can't figure anything out. I'm just trying anything I can do first to try and save the expense of labwork. I've already lost 2 other geese from my flock this year to cancer and heart attack so my wallet and heart are both hurting.

 

[Goosebaby]

Goose baby. Thank you. I should have included all that in my initial post, I know better. Answers are after the copy of your questions below.

How old is she? She is 3 years old

How long has her symptoms been going on? About 3-4 days

Could she have gotten into anything toxic or swallowed any bits of metal? It's possible but we do keep our yard pretty picked up as we know they tend to be curious. We did have some branches fall off our eucalyptus tree. I didn't see them around the tree while it was on the ground (about a day), but this would be the only known toxic thing.

Is there any stagnant water around that she has access too? No. I refill all water every day or in the larger bathing tubs we have aerators and refill them every 3 days

Have you noticed abnormal breathing sounds? Wheezing, gurgling, or sneezing, snicking, or labored breathing? Nothing out of normal.

Does her abdomen/ butt look or feel bigger than usual? Not that I can tell

Does she have an sores on her feet or elsewhere on her body? None that I clhave seen or felt. I did notice her feet looked a little scaly last night, was going to see if that could be a symptom

Has it been hotter than usual where you are? We had a heat wave about 2 wks ago but the past week has been cooler, more humid and rainy.

Has she still been laying in the last few days? No

Are you able to weigh her or feel her keel? I can guess she’s lost weight not eating but if her keel feels like a pronounced thin blade sticking out from the rest of her body she’s emaciated and has been losing weight for awhile. I do not feel her keel bone. I did weigh her 2 days ago but haven't since. I'm sure she is losing some weight but she still feels sturdy when I pick her up. I'll weigh her again today.

I will take her to the vet this week if I can't figure anything out. I'm just trying anything I can do first to try and save the expense of labwork. I've already lost 2 other geese from my flock this year to cancer and heart attack so my wallet and heart are both hurting.

View attachment 2775265

She’s beautiful and I’m so sorry that you lost two of your precious geese so recently.

There’s another chance she may have pancreatitis, one of my gander’s got it after he lost his brother. It’s a tricky condition to pin down in birds because it isn’t studied at all and has only General non specific symptoms like weight loss and loss of appetite. His CBC came back with elevated amylase which was the only clue something was abnormal, every other test came back normal.
It can be a symptom of other problems but also be the source of them. Sometimes there’s no explanation for why it occurs.

Other than rare conditions like that it could be just about anything making her sick, sometimes it takes antibiotics like Baytril 3/4 days to start showing noticable effects, though sometimes it’s very subtle so you can keep on giving her that and see if she starts to pull out of it.
The main issue that’s developing out of this is that she hasn’t eaten, if she doesn’t begin eating soon you’ll need to start tube feeding her or she just won’t have the strength to fight her illness.

You can also try mixing some of her food into a bowl of water to make a very soupy mash, a lot of times it can get them to start eating by encouraging them to play in it first.

 

[lbradleyaz]

She’s beautiful and I’m so sorry that you lost two of your precious geese so recently.

There’s another chance she may have pancreatitis, one of my gander’s got it after he lost his brother. It’s a tricky condition to pin down in birds because it isn’t studied at all and has only General non specific symptoms like weight loss and loss of appetite. His CBC came back with elevated amylase which was the only clue something was abnormal, every other test came back normal.
It can be a symptom of other problems but also be the source of them. Sometimes there’s no explanation for why it occurs.

Other than rare conditions like that it could be just about anything making her sick, sometimes it takes antibiotics like Baytril 3/4 days to start showing noticable effects, though sometimes it’s very subtle so you can keep on giving her that and see if she starts to pull out of it.
The main issue that’s developing out of this is that she hasn’t eaten, if she doesn’t begin eating soon you’ll need to start tube feeding her or she just won’t have the strength to fight her illness.

You can also try mixing some of her food into a bowl of water to make a very soupy mash, a lot of times it can get them to start eating by encouraging them to play in it first.

Thank you. Interesting to know about the pancreatitis.

I also just took her out for a quick swim. My while flock ran over and she talked with them. Weighed her on the way back in. She's lost a pound in the past two days. I have a tube setup I'd I need to, I'm just putting it off but I think I'll have to if she doesn't eat today. Now she is laying down for the first time in 3 days so Im glad she's resting, but know it's a sign of getting worse. She's very alert still...and her poop a few minutes ago has a little something in all the water, so maybe a nibble. Thank you for your advice.

 

[lbradleyaz]

New develop...Monday when I took pictures of her beak, she had a spot on it. Today she has 2.... New symptom... Has anyone else seen these

 

[Goosebaby]

It’s a little blurry so hard to say, they could be abscesses, or scuffs, it’s hard to say.