Need info on American buff geese

[Miss Lydia]

We are in the high Nevada desert.

I'm always so thankful to here of rescues when so many people are ignorant of the fact that domesticated water fowl are not like their wild cousins in that they can not fend for themselves or fly off to migrate where there is plenty of food to eat during cold weather months. I'm not sure though if it's ignorance or they just don't want to know and convince themselves that the duckling/duck or gosling/goose Can take care of itself after it has depended on a human for feed and care. I wish TSC and feed stores would quit making it so easy.

 

[Silver Spring Waterfowl]

I rescued this goose (gander?) from a local lake where the geese and ducks are starving. We got all the living geese and all but two of the ducks. The domestic ones anyway. They are all being fed as much as they can eat and being treated for pneumonia.

Why do you think this is pneumonia (what symptons are you treating) and what antibiotic are you using? What is the dose and how is it being administered? What are you feeding them to get them back into condition? Can you feel the bird's sternum when you handle it or gotten a weight and approximate height on it?

Kathy

 

[ajneal30]

A goose experienced friend told me she was pretty sure the one she took had pneumonia. She told me what antibiotics to get and I followed the dosage on the package. The whole flock got meds in their drinking water each morning to make sure they were thirsty enough to drink it all before anyone started playing in the water. I fed them show bird conditioner, poultry scratch, barley, veggies, gave them a big variety in hopes they would eat as much as they wanted and would gain weight. I could feel every bone in each birds body (ducks and geese) when they first got here. They have all gone to new homes now and when the last buff went day before yesterday, she had some fat on her. You could still feel the sternum, but just barely.

 

[Miss Lydia]

A goose experienced friend told me she was pretty sure the one she took had pneumonia. She told me what antibiotics to get and I followed the dosage on the package. The whole flock got meds in their drinking water each morning to make sure they were thirsty enough to drink it all before anyone started playing in the water. I fed them show bird conditioner, poultry scratch, barley, veggies, gave them a big variety in hopes they would eat as much as they wanted and would gain weight. I could feel every bone in each birds body (ducks and geese) when they first got here. They have all gone to new homes now and when the last buff went day before yesterday, she had some fat on her. You could still feel the sternum, but just barely.

That's wonderful you did a great thing by rescuing them and treating them, feeding them and finding them good homes. you deserve a medal in my book.

 

[Silver Spring Waterfowl]

Good for you! As long as it was someone that knows geese guiding you. Everything is dosed for chickens and turkeys and waterfowl drink so much more water that it's really easy to overdose them. They're pretty sensitive to many antibiotics that chickens and turkeys can use, too. I've had the best luck with oxytetracycline myself. They seem to tolerate that pretty well. I learned the hard way last year not to use Tiamulin/Denagard on geese. The ducks did just fine, but even with probiotics, it killed all their gut flora and they were in agony. There just wasn't any research available on that on on waterfowl. My state poultry vet and I were working on that one together, too. Just FYI for the future. My birds weren't even clinically ill, just something wasn't right and I knew it. Whatever it was was very mild. I didn't lose any until the Tiamulin fiasco, and then, mercifully, only two.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Good for you! As long as it was someone that knows geese guiding you. Everything is dosed for chickens and turkeys and waterfowl drink so much more water that it's really easy to overdose them. They're pretty sensitive to many antibiotics that chickens and turkeys can use, too. I've had the best luck with oxytetracycline myself. They seem to tolerate that pretty well. I learned the hard way last year not to use Tiamulin/Denagard on geese. The ducks did just fine, but even with probiotics, it killed all their gut flora and they were in agony. There just wasn't any research available on that on on waterfowl. My state poultry vet and I were working on that one together, too. Just FYI for the future. My birds weren't even clinically ill, just something wasn't right and I knew it. Whatever it was was very mild. I didn't lose any until the Tiamulin fiasco, and then, mercifully, only two.

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[Silver Spring Waterfowl]

Quote: Thanks, Miss Lydia. One of them was a cull, but the other was one of the best ganders I'd hatched that year. I was just sick about losing Gordon. Just goes to show that no one is infallible, even the educated ones. But these things do happen!

 

[carolina91]

I have a Buff goose who is sitting right now. This is her first year, but its the second clutch. I am really not sure what the fertility will be. The eggs are due any day now. How long should I wait before assuming the eggs were not fertile/will not hatch? I don't want to cause her stress by trying to candle or check her nest too closely. If goslings hatch, is it possible she will lay another clutch later in the summer and try to sit them? I thought about purchasing some goslings and seeing if I could get her to take them. How would I go about getting a goose to take babies?

 

[carolina91]

UPDATE - Her neighbor, Henrietta (a Cotton Patch), just hatched 2 little darlings yesterday with one more on the way. Greta, my Buff, is at least a couple of days behind if not a week as she started sitting later.

Now, I just have to figure out how to get the chicken eggs away from Henrietta and into the incubator. She stole eggs from a hen who laid her eggs a little too close.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a Buff goose who is sitting right now. This is her first year, but its the second clutch. I am really not sure what the fertility will be. The eggs are due any day now. How long should I wait before assuming the eggs were not fertile/will not hatch? I don't want to cause her stress by trying to candle or check her nest too closely. If goslings hatch, is it possible she will lay another clutch later in the summer and try to sit them? I thought about purchasing some goslings and seeing if I could get her to take them. How would I go about getting a goose to take babies?

If you have a gander then you will most likely have goslings. It takes 28-30 days so don't take the eggs before at least day 35. and then candle before tossing. If she is sitting now she will not start back laying till next year. But if she doesn't hatch any from her clutch then they will accept gosling most geese love babies and will readily accept gosling even if not their own, when mine lost theirs last year at hatch I got 2 2 day old goslings but I waited till the gosling were 3 weeks old before i gave them to the parents, 1 reason my goose was not over her brood and wouldn't come out so everyday I'd take the goslings out and walk past her house her and the gander would watch this went on for 1 week, next week when we'd walk by they would come outside and stand off but watch them, Gander going by what goose would do,. end of week 2 both adults were following me and goslings all over the property finally I felt it was a good time to let the babies be with them over night. so when time for bed and the adults went in I gently put the 2 babies in with them, it was the sweetest thing I have ever seen both gosling went and snuggled up next to the female the gander standing guard. they have been inseparable ever since and those goslings will be 1 yr old in June. So that is a good option if none hatch. Keep us updated.about the chicks wear gloves take a small box and get the chicks out and in the brooder. might be a good idea to have back up that way someone can distract he gander.