Medicine for limping goose?

[Nbrei]

There are a couple past posts about limping geese but I couldn't quite find what I needed. We have a two year old female Toulouse goose that has been limping for a few months. It waxes and wanes but she's almost always limping, often heavily. There's no bird vet near us but a large animal vet said maybe we could try meloxicam, which I've seen suggested in another post. There's no wound and it's not bumblefoot as far as we can tell. She has not been able to swim and we're not able to bring her in to the bathtub. So, practically, how does one give a goose Meloxicam? Can I crush tablets into water, since it is much more affordable that way than what I can find for oral suspension? I also see T-relief liquid for dogs which is less expensive. I haven't tried B vitamins. She's a sweet goose and I feel bad letting it go so long, but it's always just when we think she's improving that it gets bad again.
Thank you!

 

[Goosebaby]

Try giving B vitamin complex as well as a general multivitamin. Sometimes vitamin deficiency is the issue.
What feed is she on and what breed is she also?

She could have an old leg, hip, or joint injury. Cold weather could be aggravating it.

Meloxicam can be crushed and mixed with water in a syringe, 12 ml syringes are the easiest to use with geese, any smaller and it’s harder to manouver them to the back of the throat far enough.
You can also place the pill in the mouth yourself, wrap it in a small peace of lettuce and stuff it down her throat, or hide it in a berry or grape.
Truthfully stuffing it down her throat or using a syringe is the only way to ensure she actually takes it, sometimes when geese figure out that you’re hiding meds in food they’ll dissect the treat to get the pill out.

Whichever method you choose this is how you administer meds to a bird:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

You can corner your goose or squat over them, not sitting on them but using your body to hold them into place.
After that use one hand to apply pressure to the corners of the mouth until she opens, then wrap your fingers around the top of the bill, she can’t chew you up if you do that, then use your other hand to insert the syringe, pill, whatever as far back in her mouth to HER right as possible, then close her mouth and hold her beak upwards for a second or two.
Finally give her her favorite treat.
The faster you do it the easier it actually is and less traumatic for her.

If she needs meloxicam or anything else on a long term basis the treat will train her to get used to the whole thing and that it isn’t a big deal. She’ll never like doing it, but after a bit it becomes just some mildly annoying thing that she gets rewarded for. Do it enough times and you can just walk up to her, open her mouth, and pop the medicine in without much of a struggle.

 

[Nbrei]

Try giving B vitamin complex as well as a general multivitamin. Sometimes vitamin deficiency is the issue.
What feed is she on and what breed is she also?

She could have an old leg, hip, or joint injury. Cold weather could be aggravating it.

Meloxicam can be crushed and mixed with water in a syringe, 12 ml syringes are the easiest to use with geese, any smaller and it’s harder to manouver them to the back of the throat far enough.
You can also place the pill in the mouth yourself, wrap it in a small peace of lettuce and stuff it down her throat, or hide it in a berry or grape.
Truthfully stuffing it down her throat or using a syringe is the only way to ensure she actually takes it, sometimes when geese figure out that you’re hiding meds in food they’ll dissect the treat to get the pill out.

Whichever method you choose this is how you administer meds to a bird:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

You can corner your goose or squat over them, not sitting on them but using your body to hold them into place.
After that use one hand to apply pressure to the corners of the mouth until she opens, then wrap your fingers around the top of the bill, she can’t chew you up if you do that, then use your other hand to insert the syringe, pill, whatever as far back in her mouth to HER right as possible, then close her mouth and hold her beak upwards for a second or two.
Finally give her her favorite treat.
The faster you do it the easier it actually is and less traumatic for her.

If she needs meloxicam or anything else on a long term basis the treat will train her to get used to the whole thing and that it isn’t a big deal. She’ll never like doing it, but after a bit it becomes just some mildly annoying thing that she gets rewarded for. Do it enough times and you can just walk up to her, open her mouth, and pop the medicine in without much of a struggle.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond with all these details. Sometimes it is hard to know where to look for answers and I appreciate the link as well! We will start with the B vitamin and multivitamin and then see if meloxicam might still be needed, since I guess a prescription is required. She is a toulouse goose, but she is in our flock of chickens so she just eats 16% layer feed. I suppose that must be the problem. We thought it would be too hard to keep her away from their food and vice versa. Maybe if she has the mixed flock food option she will go for what is good for her?

 

[Nbrei]

Or maybe there is another anti inflammatory besides Meloxicam, I'm seeing some information about tumeric and also aspirin (but not long term)

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I my friend raises geese and told me they need way more bud niacin then ducks do
I add nutritional yeast to my feed for my ducks as it’s not enough so maybe she could have niacin issues
I would give vitamin B complex over a treat or straight by syringe for a few weeks straight and see if she starts to improve

 

[Goosebaby]

Or maybe there is another anti inflammatory besides Meloxicam, I'm seeing some information about tumeric and also aspirin (but not long term)

Turmeric could help, meloxicam will have more of a noticeable effect faster. Meloxicam is generally fairly safe. I’m hesitant to say that Aspirin would be a good idea, I’ve never tried it myself but I’ve heard some negatives about giving it to birds.
I would ask the chicken side of this community about aspirin. There aren’t a lot of goose owners compared to chicken owners so theres more people who’ve dealt with giving aspirin to their birds.

 

[Goosebaby]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond with all these details. Sometimes it is hard to know where to look for answers and I appreciate the link as well! We will start with the B vitamin and multivitamin and then see if meloxicam might still be needed, since I guess a prescription is required. She is a toulouse goose, but she is in our flock of chickens so she just eats 16% layer feed. I suppose that must be the problem. We thought it would be too hard to keep her away from their food and vice versa. Maybe if she has the mixed flock food option she will go for what is good for her?

It could be, Toulouse are a fairly heavy breed and their nutritional requirements can be higher.

 

[Nbrei]

I my friend raises geese and told me they need way more bud niacin then ducks do
I add nutritional yeast to my feed for my ducks as it’s not enough so maybe she could have niacin issues
I would give vitamin B complex over a treat or straight by syringe for a few weeks straight and see if she starts to improve

Thank you so much for the response! We will try these ideas. It is starting to make sense especially as we never noted a clear injury.

 

[Nbrei]

Turmeric could help, meloxicam will have more of a noticeable effect faster. Meloxicam is generally fairly safe. I’m hesitant to say that Aspirin would be a good idea, I’ve never tried it myself but I’ve heard some negatives about giving it to birds.
I would ask the chicken side of this community about aspirin. There aren’t a lot of goose owners compared to chicken owners so theres more people who’ve dealt with giving aspirin to their birds.

Got it. This helps. We will try the vitamins and see if we can get Meloxicam to help her out. Hopefully I'm back before long with a good outcome!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

We all hope the best for your girl
Keep us posted
I know with niacin it can take weeks to see improvements