Need Gosling Advise

[BlueSoul]

I'm used to raising geese and ducks but I've never seen something like this. I have a four to five week old gosling that isn't growing like the others I have, she's smaller than she should be and she's always had bald spots. She recently got over cement vent and her belly sounds/feels like pop rocks? My last piece of information is that she stumbles a lot but gets around good. I could only get one okay picture

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

She does look small for her age. At this stage, a gosling should be growing like a weed.

What do you feed your geese? When did you first notice that her development was lagging behind the others?

 

[BlueSoul]

She does look small for her age. At this stage, a gosling should be growing like a weed.

What do you feed your geese? When did you first notice that her development was lagging behind the others?

We were feeding her chick starter but switched to game feed, there's not much grass here unless you go to the back yard but she's to young for that. We noticed her development was lagging as soon as she hatched. She was the second gosling hatched from a duck but the other is doing fine.

 

[Goosebaby]

Chick start doesn’t have enough b vitamins for waterfowl which may have suppressed her growth and immune system early on.
What brand of game feed is she on?
Also what does her droppings look like?
Are you able to weigh her?


The popping in her gut is gas, which is usually caused from a gut infection but could also be due to diet. Something like Giardia, coccidia, Candida, clostridium, salmonella, overpopulation of e.coli, or even worms are some of the causes. I have one that has a recurring issue with Giardia and enteritis “clostridium“ and his gut sounds like that when he’s coming down with it again.

A gram stain and fecal float could give some ideas about what may be going on but if a vet isn’t an option or you don’t have one in your area that will see waterfowl “which is common” you’ll need to treat based on some educated guesswork.

If you can find liquid B complex and a liquid multivitamin I would start giving it to her asap. It‘s best if you administer it down her throat with a syringe “6ml or 12 ml/ 12 ml is safer.”

Some other things you can try is giving her safeguard horse paste or goat wormer. Fenbendazole will kill worms but it is also effective against Giardia.

Metronidazole can be bought as fish antibiotics, it’s effective against Giardia and clostridium.

Tylosin is effective against clostridium and a number of other nasty stomach bugs. It can be purchased in a powder form for pigeons.

 

[Goosebaby]

Also if you’ve never done it here’s some great information about administering oral meds to birds.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

With geese it’s also easiest to pin them in place by squatting over them “not sitting on them!” to keep them immobile by using your body and legs to keep them in place, then they with one hand you apply pressure to the corners of their mouth to get them to open it. As soon as it opens wrap your hand around their upper beak “it’s harder for them to bite you strangely enough if you do this” and with you other hand insert the syringe as far back into THEIR right side of the throat and hit the plunger or push the pill down.

A key thing about this is the faster you do the whole process the easier and less traumatic it actually is.

If they’re still able to eat on their own offering a treat before and after can train them into not reacting to the whole thing like they’re being attacked. They’ll never like it, but they’ll learn to tolerate it as a general annoyance which makes it easy if you have them on meds longer than a few days.

 

[BlueSoul]

Chick start doesn’t have enough b vitamins for waterfowl which may have suppressed her growth and immune system early on.
What brand of game feed is she on?
Also what does her droppings look like?
Are you able to weigh her?


The popping in her gut is gas, which is usually caused from a gut infection but could also be due to diet. Something like Giardia, coccidia, Candida, clostridium, salmonella, overpopulation of e.coli, or even worms are some of the causes. I have one that has a recurring issue with Giardia and enteritis “clostridium“ and his gut sounds like that when he’s coming down with it again.

A gram stain and fecal float could give some ideas about what may be going on but if a vet isn’t an option or you don’t have one in your area that will see waterfowl “which is common” you’ll need to treat based on some educated guesswork.

If you can find liquid B complex and a liquid multivitamin I would start giving it to her asap. It‘s best if you administer it down her throat with a syringe “6ml or 12 ml/ 12 ml is safer.”

Some other things you can try is giving her safeguard horse paste or goat wormer. Fenbendazole will kill worms but it is also effective against Giardia.

Metronidazole can be bought as fish antibiotics, it’s effective against Giardia and clostridium.

Tylosin is effective against clostridium and a number of other nasty stomach bugs. It can be purchased in a powder form for pigeons.

The other geese on that feed were fine but I know that was some weird food. We're buying b complex powder pills, how much should I give her? Can I give her some ivermectin?

 

[Goosebaby]

I’ve never used pills so I’m not sure but B vitamins are water soluble so they filter out of the body very easily, meaning overdosing isn’t a concern. In really high amounts they can cause temporary nausea and warm the body up but toxicity isn’t a concern.

Ivermectin has no effect on Giardia and I’ve seen mixed results for it‘s effectiveness with worms around here so it’s not high on my list of wormers. It’s great against mites though.

Wormers of any kind can affect feather development when birds are growing their feathers in so there’s a possibility you’ll see stress bars develop. However severe illness and malnutrition will also cause that so your goose might end up with them anyway. They’ll grow back in normally with the next molt.

 

[Goosebaby]

How is your gosling?