- Jan 27, 2014
- 14
- 0
- 22
Hi I've just joined this site and wondered if anyone could help. One of our geese hatched a gosling about 3 days ago (we think) and had another egg which she stayed on (which we've now found dead). My husband found the first gosling outside of the nest and wet (she'd made a nest inside a shed which is inside the main hut so we've no idea why the gosling was wet). We think she's either hurt it or it was born a bit lame and she's thrown it out. Anyway it's been in a cage under a heat lamp inside our house for 3 days (with a chick we incubated so it's not lonely). The gosling has splayed legs but no wounds and is eating and drinking perfectly well but it keeps falling over onto its back and I keep having to right it. Sometimes it gets back onto its feet on its own. My husband read on a forum that, when chicks have splayed legs, you can help correct this by putting elastoplast on each leg and a piece of string inside double sided sellotape from one leg to another to keep them more together. He did this and the gosling seemed to be able to stand a lot better. The problem is that it's still falling over onto its back, especially when it shakes its head or is startled by someone. Like I said, it's eating just fine, seems alert and is perfectly happy when I take it out and hold it (to clean off bits of hay etc). Do you think it's a matter of giving it more time to get strong and it'll sort itself out or, could there be anything else wrong with it, or anything else we can do? Many thanks for reading this xxx
and Welcome To BYC! You might also want to post on the Geese forum about the baby. 
