Help, Gosling with eye opening not over eyeball. Pics!

[kelseygirl707]

Hey guys,

I just hatched 2 goslings (My First goose experience). The first gosling is in the brooder and going great, but this second baby seems very weak, and it looks as though it's eye lids are not positioned over the eyeball, in the picture, you can see a dark spot under the eye opening, and that is the eyeball. If I gently pull the bottom eyelid down, I can see the eyeball, but otherwise I can't. Has anybody ever seen this? This egg was cracked when I received it, so I sealed it with wax and set it anyway, but maybe I shouldn't have.

 

[Goosehaven]

Is it just the one eye or both? If its just one eye he should still be able to function pretty good. This problem shouldn't cause him to be any weaker than the other unless there's some internal problems going on and when my goslings hatched there was definite differences in how strong they were. I hope everything works out okay for your little guy.

 

[kelseygirl707]

It's both eyes

. It's head almost seems to heavy for it, I'm wondering if maybe it has some swelling or fluid retention in it's head, and that is pulling the eye lids up, and making it seem weak.

 

[Goosehaven]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear its both eyes. I had one that early on didn't hold his head up very good for what seemed longer than the others but with the eye problem that would be a worry. Did he just hatch yesterday?

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Let it dry off all the way. Sometimes they look like that until they get fluffy. Remember that their bodies are compressed inside of a round egg for 28 days. Sometimes it takes some time for them to bounce back into their intended shape. Kind of like how some babies are born with a conehead, but they don't stay that way.

 

[kelseygirl707]

Thanks guys, I will give it plenty of time. It zipped and popped the top of it's shell of yesterday morning, then laid there halfway out of the egg until about 2 hours ago when it came all the way out. It also looks like it still has some yoke to absorb.

 

[wvgal61]

Does the nose holes seem a little low on the beak?

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Quote:
No, those are normal for a gosling. Duckling nostrils are placed higher on the beak, though.

 

[wvgal61]

I hope it does good.

 

[Kim65]

His eyes look pretty normal to me

but I'll defer to the more experienced people. The lower eyelid is the larger, movable eyelid on geese, and on mine when they were brand new hatchlings I could see that darker eye showing through the lower lid like that. The eye slit is more toward the top of the eye normally on geese.

I agree to let it fluff up and rest.