Help...I seem to be losing my whole flock. :(

[gottsegnet]

We received 8 pilgrim geese at the end of May. We lost two a week ago and never figured out a cause. Today we lost three.

There were no symptoms for any of them. They were happy, eating and drinking this morning when I put them in their pen. They were happily playing in their water when I left them. I came down an hour later to move the sprinkler in my garden and checked on them and three were dead.

They are being fed game bird starter and their water dish is deep enough for them to put their whole head in.

Any ideas?

 

[noahsgeese]

Are they getting picked off?

 

[slackwater]

I don't know, but I wanted to send along a *hug* I know how you feel - I am steadily losing chicks, no matter what I treat for...

 

[gottsegnet]

Picked off? What do you mean?

Nothing has access to them. They are in a tractor wrapped in chicken wire. Nothing can get in. I've never seen them be aggressive toward one another.

 

[gottsegnet]

And thanks for the hug. I hope you can save the rest of your chicks. We've lost a few, but the cause was clear....a dog. But the chickens are free ranged, and the geese aren't. Nothing can get in their pen except maybe a garter snake and not much can get on our property unannounced thanks to our lab mix.

 

[Kim65]

Oh god, I am so sorry!!!

There is something making them sick or they have a congenital defect. In your shoes I'd scrape together whatever funds and have two of them necropsied by a vet or vet school. Goslings/geese just don't die like this. Something is very wrong, and it doesn't sound at all like it's the environment you provide.

Do you have other poultry? Any past or present health issues with them? Any other birds eating the same feed?

I wish I had more ideas.

I'd take the rest of them and MOVE them. Bring them in the house. Get a different bag of feed and give them bottled water. Change everything. It's a desperation move, but that's what I'd do.

I've lost chicks like this, and no matter what I did, medication, cleanliness, vitamins, ACV, NOTHING stopped them all from dying except two (who were roosters, of course). I just don't "lose" babies. I'm a nazi in how I care for them. My only conclusion was they had a congenital problem, a "bad hatch" issue.

Take care, and keep us posted

 

[Guitartists]

So sorry

I wish I had an answer for you. Could the feed be bad? Or possibly medicated with something the geese should not have?

 

[gottsegnet]

It's game bird starter, and the chickens have had it in small amounts. That's what surprises me. From everything I've read, the chickens should be more susceptible to anything they would be susceptible to. Fowl cholera apparently can kill quickly without much warning, but I don't know. By the time I order the medication, the other three will be dead before I can get it, I fear.

 

[DuckLady]

What is the weather like? If they are only a couple weeks old, they might be getting chilled. Can you put them under a heat lamp?

 

[gottsegnet]

They are almost a month old and it is 90. They have a heat lamp at night when it cools off to the low 80s, but they generally move as far away from it as possible.