In desperate need of help for an African goose

[Coleman]

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150658111501931.386230.507136930&type=3&l=7f8e46e95​

This is a public album you can view on facebook of an African goose that lives on our lake who is in danger.​

If anyone can offer advice on what to do for her or what could be wrong with her, I would greatly appreciate it.​

Our local wildlife rescue will not come get her.
I have sent the pictures of her to them, but have not heard from them yet.​

This is an African goose that is about 4-5 years old.
She was fine until a few weeks ago.
We thought she had gotten into a fight (and lost), but her condition looks worse now than ever.​

Thanks!​

​

 

[Coleman]

bump

 

[thomaschickens]

Poor thing! I will do some searching to see if I can find anything. We have an African Goose but he is only 2 months old right now.

 

[Coleman]

Thank you!

I've called our wildlife rescue---they informed me that an African goose is considered domestic (aka a pet) therefore doesn't fall into their realm of care. I sent them the pictures of her and they said they would try to see what they could find.

After a morning of working on what to do---all we can come up with is that she's a pet and we'd have to take her to a vet (at our expense).

Have no idea how to catch her without hurting her, to start with, and not sure I'm financially up for the expense of rehabilitating her.
Was told to treat her---we'd have to find a place to "keep" her.

I fear she is contagious to the other birds in our lake too (heron, crane, mallards, coots, Canadian geese).

She's not our pet.

From a google search and I'm definitely NOT a vet or animal professional (just a nurse)....
it looks closely like burrowing mites or something like that.
She's losing feathers and her head is awful....just awful.
Heartbreaking!

 

[Coleman]

Finally got some answers I think....I have a friend who is a vet (lives out of state) who told me to give her 1% ivermectin liquid (.1cc) in 2 doses 14 days apart. They said that the most logical problem would be the mites I suspected.
I'll be going in the morning to the feed supplier to get some for her.


Still open to any thoughts and ideas as my friend is not out of the woods yet.
Glad I found this site!

 

[thomaschickens]

She's so lucky to have you taking an interest in her! It's sad that someone probably got her as a cute little baby but then got rid of her when she grew to be bigger than they thought. I think it's crazy that the wildlife rescue won't do anything for her. You would think that if it is something contagious that they would rather help her before it possibly spreads to a bird that isn't "domesticated."

It is really difficult trying to find information on geese! I looked and looked the other day, but came up with pretty much nothing (other than possibly an internal parasite or an external mite).

I'm sure you've called local vets, but maybe there's that one-of-a-kind vet who would be willing to treat Scarlet for free (or maybe at a reduced rate). Keep us posted on how the ivermectin works!

Thank you again for helping this beautiful bird

 

[thomaschickens]

I know it's only been a couple of days, but have you seen any improvement in her yet?

 

[Coleman]

I've been feeding her at least once a day (more if she comes around) our floating catfish food.
The feed supply place said it was 30% protein so I figured that was better than trying to give her bread or whatever else.
I fill up a container and then stand beside her so the Canadians and mallards don't interrupt her or try to get it on the action.
She doesn't look any worse at this point and is still energetic enough to "run" to me if she sees me.

I ended up buying the Ivermectin paste 1.87% for horses. I have not given that to her yet because I did not feel comfortable trying to come up with a therapeutic dose for whatever she has in relationship to her size. I think I scared the wildlife rescue girl I had been talking to in email.
She is supposed to come to my house today (on her own and not as a rep of wildlife rescue...and on her day off).
She said she has Ivermectin liquid 1% that is about to expire and would bring it to me.
I was going to buy the liquid, but a vet I talked to said to only give her 0.1 cc of it and my feed supply store only had 250mL bottles for $50....which is why I decided on the paste ($6.00).

We'll see what she says today when she comes out.
I think Scarlet is getting close enough to me that I could possibly dust her with something, but have no clue what I could put on her.

She is losing more feathers, but her head and knob do not look any worse. Maybe the addition of almost only protein to eat is helping.

I read that it takes 4-6 weeks for her to regrow feathers.
I don't know how long it would take for her head and knob to recover.

Such a shame for such a once gorgeous animal to look so bad.
Breaks my heart.

Thanks for replying and asking about her.
She's a sweety!

p.s.
I'm an RN too!

 

[thomaschickens]

I had to giggle a little bit when you said that you scared the wild life girl...whatever gets the job done though right

As for dusting her with something, I've read that you can use Sevin Dust, or DE (Diatomaceous Earth) on chickens for mites, so I don't see why you couldn't use it on a goose. Here is a picture of our little guy, who's not so little anymore. My husband named him Duck Duck (as in Duck Duck Goose), against my wishes lol. keep me posted please!

 

[Coleman]

How precious is Duck Duck!! LOL cute name too.

Wildlife rescue girl did not call or come today as I had hoped.
I had held off giving Scarlet any medicine because she was going to bring the ivermectin liquid (1%) to give her.

So, I went ahead and gave her Ivermectin paste (1.87%). I read that it was okay to give a goose the width of a flat toothpick (not the length!), so I put some on a piece of bread.

I also remembered I had some veterinary Keflex (250 mg) for my dog who probably weighs the same as Scarlet. I gave her that too. <biting nails>
I HAD to do something for her!

She's still got a good appetite and again, she ran to me when she saw me.


Does anyone have experience with vision loss in a goose?? A friend said that may be why she's not swimming. Not sure if it's vision loss of loss of depth perception.
She can see me, apparently fine, but sometimes she misses my hand and goes right beside it or she misses the container I have her food in, like her judgment isn't right.
heck, I don't know.

She has a new excoriated place under her right eye (it was left eye last week) that looked like it was open.
Her skin where the feathers are missing is scaly and just gnarly looking. No other open wounds on her, except about the face.

I know nothing about goose anatomy, but I swear, it looks like she's missing part of her skull in places where it just dips in. I suppose that's because she has lost the feathers on her head.

Wish I knew what happened to this baby.

So say a prayer that the medicines I have given her will help. I won't give her ivermectin again for 14 days, but I will be giving her the Keflex twice a day and keep feeding her lots of protein.

I think I will go to the feed store tomorrow and get the DE for her. I'm a little afraid of putting Sevin dust on her....she doesn't need to get poisoned on top of everything else.
She is spending a lot of time standing still and putting her head on her back between her wings.

I figure nothing can hurt at this point.

I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks!!