HELP! PLEASE! my beautiful gander is sick!

[one old chick]

hello, please can someone help me. my beautiful one year old gander Ricki is sick. he was limping a couple of days ago favoring his left foot, but then seemed fine yesterday. today he is not able to walk, when he does he is unable to put weight on his left side. I checked for injury but didn't see anything. I put him in the pen thinking maya be he sprained it because he is a big boy (35ibs) and is sometimes awkward. I went to check on him and he is panting and really cannot stand. i checked him again and he tried to get to the water but then collapsed. i put his head over the bucket and he did take a drink. he is in the barn the doors are opened with plenty of air. i don't know what is wrong with him. there are no vets here that treat fowl. i am so worried about him. i put the female in with him so he wouldn't be looking for her. i don't know what to do for him. his panting is worrying me. i imagine he might be in some kind of pain but i don't see anything. please if anyone has any idea of what this could be please reply. thank you

 

[jtn42248]

I am so sorry. I have not a clue how to help you but I understand your concern. I have PM'ed several people that may be able to help. Just hang in. My best wishes to you.

 

[casportpony]

Try looking here for a vet:
http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/vetfinder.htm

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Or here:
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803

-Kathy

 

[caesargirl]

I would bring him inside for a warm bath with Epsom salts. no drinking it. Ads some save a chick or electrolytes to his water. Is it hot where u are? Cold? Is he eating?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@one old chick A vet is a good idea. do you happen to know if he may have eaten anything toxic? Check your feed too to make sure it isn't moldy or smells off. If you suspect botulism there is info in the sticky at the beginning of the goose thread that tells you how to treat.

 

[one old chick]

I am sorry it has taken so long to reply to all of you. Thank you all so much! I have been resting Ricki in his pen for three days. I spoke with a vet in Virginia and we talked about adding yeast to his grain and calcium as a precaution, even though we feed a very high quality pellet to them he doesn't eat the roots and grass as much as my female he prefers to eat the grain. We also think he could have sprained his leg jumping out of the pool. There was a brick sticking up about two inches out of the dirt he may have landed on it. He is quite heavy and clumsy at times. We let him out yesterday for an hour and he seemed to be much better. Today he is out and he is just about back to normal. Miss Lydia thank you for the information. i wasn't aware of anything like that. We sometimes dump our feed dishes just inside the woods for the wild birds to eat but after reading your information perhaps we shouldn't do that anymore for fear the chickens might get into it also. Again, thank you all so much, so appreciated.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@one old chick Thanks so much for updating we don't always think of older water fowl having a niacin def but I'm sure it happens and glad to hear your Ricki is almost back to normal sometimes we just have to try things and see if they help. glad the Brewers yeast helped get him back on his legs..

Moldy feed is very unhealthy for our birds even the wild birds shouldn't eat it. I hate to have to waste but old feed goes in the trash here. Plus throwing out feed in the woods can draw in predators too.

I hope Ricki continues to get 100%, that was great you were able to talk with a vet .

My Muscovy drake got a bad sprain from jumping out of the pool several years ago he could have just walked down the ramp but he jumped he was laid up for a couple weeks but finally got over it.

Thanks again for updating..

 

[one old chick]

@one old chick Thanks so much for updating we don't always think of older water fowl having a niacin def but I'm sure it happens and glad to hear your Ricki is almost back to normal sometimes we just have to try things and see if they help. glad the Brewers yeast helped get him back on his legs..

Moldy feed is very unhealthy for our birds even the wild birds shouldn't eat it. I hate to have to waste but old feed goes in the trash here. Plus throwing out feed in the woods can draw in predators too.

I hope Ricki continues to get 100%, that was great you were able to talk with a vet .

My Muscovy drake got a bad sprain from jumping out of the pool several years ago he could have just walked down the ramp but he jumped he was laid up for a couple weeks but finally got over it.

Thanks again for updating..

Hi Miss Lydia, thanks so much for your well wishes. Regarding the food we throw out, we don't usually have mold. However when it is pulverized the geese won't eat it they will only eat the pellets. Sometimes I give the pulverized to the chickens they like it no matter what. However, I am sure what we do put outside sometimes goes bad because it will rain and make it wet. We usually will bury it at that point. We didn't think about predators coming for it. We have wild turkey and other fowl that stay through the winter, we have always thrown it out for them but we will rethink that in the future. thank you again.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi Miss Lydia, thanks so much for your well wishes. Regarding the food we throw out, we don't usually have mold. However when it is pulverized the geese won't eat it they will only eat the pellets. Sometimes I give the pulverized to the chickens they like it no matter what. However, I am sure what we do put outside sometimes goes bad because it will rain and make it wet. We usually will bury it at that point. We didn't think about predators coming for it. We have wild turkey and other fowl that stay through the winter, we have always thrown it out for them but we will rethink that in the future. thank you again.

I have always wanted to put out corn for the deer and turkey's but dh says it will draw raccoons etc. so I sat out some dry cat kibble and set up the game camera. sure enough a family of raccoons and some opossum helped themselves so I decided I know they are around but I don't want to feed them. . .Not when I have birds. Best way in the world to see what preds you have is putting up a game camera .