Lost our dear sweet Jeanne

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

We bought our first three Sebastopol geese two years ago from a local woman. Two were white girls, and then we got one Lavender male. At only six months, Jeanne broke her leg and pelvis. We have no idea how. But she limped along okay for quite a while. We added more geese last year. i ended up separating Jeanne from the others as she couldn't go as fast and would fall, then end up getting stepped on. So for quite some time, she lived in the house at night, then i would carry her out during the day to a protected pen where she could get some sun and see the others. She also got to swim in our tub every other day. My vet suspected degenerative bone disease.

Several months back, Jeanne's sister Maureen went down. Took her to the vet to find she had two extremely serious breaks on one of her legs. She was sinking fast. The vet said she was probably septic, so we reluctantly made the decision to put her down. Jeanne still seemed to be doing okay. But since they were sisters, our vet said she probably suffered from the same degenerative bone disease problem.

Last week, Jeanne seemed to take a downturn. She had trouble standing and didn't want to float in the tub. i took her back for x-rays. Now, we had x-rays done every 4-6 months. The original break was way up high on the leg, where the leg bone connects to the pelvis. The last x-ray several months ago looked like the top part of the leg was smoothing out. When i took her in last Thursday, the whole top part of the bone was completely gone! My vet said it was the worst case of degenerative bone disease she has ever seen. It was heartbreaking, i had to make the decision to have her euthanized.

i'm pondering if i should contact the woman i got them from. She said she bought them from Holderread's a year or two before i got the babies. i know she has since sold the parents to someone else. If this degenerative bone disease is hereditary, whomever owns the parents now shouldn't keep breeding. It is a horrible and heartbreaking disease. i hate to think of other babies out there facing the same fate.

 

[sourland]

I agree with you that the parents should not be allowed to hatch eggs again. I would contact the woman from whom you got the geese. I commend you on giving 'Jeanne' a good life.

 

[RURU]

I am so sorry to hear of your lose of the two Sebastopol sisters. How terribly sad you must be. I do believe you should contact the people you bought them from and tell them about the genetic problem they had. To make sure to tell the people they sold the parents to so they if breeding them will stop. This is an awful thing to pass onto other geese. They will have such short lives.

I am a Sebastopol lover and I hobby breeder but want to make sure all my geese are healthy and genetically sound before I sell to people. I would want a person tell me if there was something lurking around in their background like that!

Good for you keeping your girls and taking them to the vets to see how they are and were doing!!!!

Then making sure they did not suffer too much and had a good quality while they were here....

 

[Miss Lydia]

so sorry.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Thank you. i did email the seller this morning. Hopefully she still has the same email address. She is a very nice person and i'm sure she had no idea about this problem. i think she only bred them for two years then got overwhelmed with family and work so sold the parents. The lavender gander i got at the same time as the whites is perfectly healthy, so it would just be her white pair that might be throwing the bad genetics.

i sure do miss both those girls, just the sweetest geese.

 

[RURU]