Goose With Dementia?

[Baby Viv]

My buff goose can't seem to figure out how to get in and out of the pen with the rest of the geese anymore. All seems fine with her appetite and vision, she just appears to be confused and is left standing around by herself a lot. Not sure how old she is, but she stopped laying eggs about 3 years ago. Has anybody else experienced this with an older goose?

 

[JRies]

I hope someone might jump in with some advice mine are all young

 

[Goosebaby]

How long has she had this problem?

Could you also post a picture of her? Specifically a side and rear view of her.

I don’t know how long geese continue to lay eggs, maybe they don’t if they’re elderly? “My oldest is 10 and he’s a gander.” but not laying can be caused by reproductive illnesses or a another problem that’s impacting multiple organs like the kidneys which can cause cognitive issues.

Have you noticed any other odd behaviors besides this?

 

[Baby Viv]

She has been a little confused for about two years now, so I thought the change I was seeing was just her confusion getting worse. Wrong! After I posted this, she had a bloody nose and I noticed she wasn't eating, just sitting off by herself more than usual, and there is some bloody spray on the walls where she sits. She has clear green water poop that I'm hoping is just from not eating and not diarrhea. She doesn't appear to be in respiratory distress, but she obviously is not feeling good and that bloody spray is certainly worrisome. Separated her with her own bucket of water and some treats to see if she would eat. She ate some and bathed, but her feathers stayed wet, so I put her and her mate in a separate warm enclosure. She was standing at the water bucket when I checked this a.m., so I'm taking that as a good sign for now. Hopefully my neighbors still like me today, one of the other geese screamed all night for that gander!

 

[Goosebaby]

Cognitive issues that have lasted two years rules out anything acute and points to something chronic, it could be old age related diseases, but for all we know she may not be that old and this could be something else. The bleeding is concerning, I can’t say it’s linked to whatever she has going on or if she hurt herself somehow.

Green watery droppings generally aren’t good but if she’s eating a lot of greens and water it can be normal so sometimes with waterfowl it’s hard to say, with most birds if it’s different enough that you’ve noticed that it’s different than it’s probably not good.
Droppings can be hard to read but from what I know if the urates “the white or off white part at the end of a log dropping or the white stringy part in a puddle dropping” is bright green or yellow it indicates kidney or liver failure. If it’s really bubbly it can mean that she has a bacterial infection, black or red can mean coccidia in the lower or upper digestive tract or internal bleeding, undigested food can mean parasites, heat stress, or organ problems.

One concern is that she could have lead or zinc poisoning, which can cause confusion, but she wouldn’t have lasted two years with it so it could be that she happend to have one issue going on and ate something she wasn’t supposed to on top of it?

Another concern would be parrot fever which is contagious, most birds tend to have respiratory issues I’ve heard when they have it but a few don’t, it’s contageous so she could have gotten it from a wild bird and it could be passed among the flock.

A vet can diagnose it or whatever else could be causing her illness. If it’s comething contageous I’d want to make sure it’s diagnosed and treated, if it’s poisoning it can be treated depending on how much of whatever it is she can pass out of her system.

If it isn’t those then all of her symptoms, minus the bleeding could point to her liver and kidneys not functioning normally, unfortunately there isn’t always a way to reverse problems like these. If she hasn’t developed ascites then there’s a chance the liver still has the capacity to repair itself, but it isn’t a guarantee, you could try giving her lily of the desert aloe detox, denamarin in the small dog dosage, tart cherry extract, fresh lemon or grapefruit juice in her water, as many fresh greens as she will eat, antioxidant rich foods like blueberries, if she rebounds that would be great but at the least they might give her a bit more time and make her more comfortable.

These are just some ideas, her symptoms are pretty serious and honestly a vet would have a much better idea of what she might be dealing with and how to treat it if it’s treatable, though I know that isn’t alway an option for most of us even without current world issues so it’s undestandable if it’s not an option.

It’s good that she’s somewhere warm with a friend, you were right to make her more comfortable, that’s the most important thing and hopefully I’m just over thinking things and jumping to worst case senarios and she bounces back on her own. I hope she feels better soon.