gosling backflips over when drinking water

[monster1]

i got my order of eight toulose goslings on friday. they all seems nice and healthy and wanted to eat and drink right away. i noticed that one out of the eight was acting funny. when the gosling drinks, instead of tilting its head up to swallow the water like the rest of the birds, its neck bends back 180 degrees on top of its back and it flips over backward. it seems that it is a bodily reaction to the water, not a concious effort to tilt its head back to drink the water. the gosling is healthy otherwise. i felt its neck and can't seem to find any abnormality. there is nothing that the bird could have caught in its throat such as wood shavings and i haven't given the birds too much water. what could be the problem? the hatchery gave me a refund on the abnormal bird and said that it sounds like the birds overheated in transit. doesn't seem likely. i would like to see the gosling make it even if i got my money refunded for that bird. other than this problem, it is doing fine with the rest of the birds.

thanks,
monty

ps. i found a post on the goose forum titled "goose convulses after drinking water." this is exactly what this gosling is doing.

 

[chickensioux]

Hello, sorry you are having troubles with the little one. From my understanding this might be causes by a "late hatch" meaning it stayed in its egg longer than the appointed hatch date. I would just make sure that this little guy gets some vitamins and electrolytes in it's water. I don't think there is really anything else to do for it and it should out grow it. Good luck

 

[monster1]

hopefully it will. i will try what you said. i am planning on eating a few of these geese when they get larger. i will probably cull this one if he makes it. i just wanted to make sure that it wasn't something that could affect the other birds.

thanks

 

[threehorses]

I've had geese that do that. you must make sure that they never ever run out of water. If they do, you must give it back to them slowly. Give them one sip, then remove it. Two sips, then remove it for a minute. Four sips, etc. Otherwise they can drink too fast and will flip over and die, sometimes. I have no idea why. But it can happen with goslings coming in.

As for vitamins/electrolytes, I would NOT give them to goslings because they drink incredible amounts of water and will overdose. The same with ducklings both on the water drinking and vitamins, should you ever raise them. Depend on their correct starting food. Do not feed medicated food to goslings. I started mine on crumbled game bird starter and they're doing wonderfully this year.