Please help! Wobbly adult geese???

dianneS

Songster
Mar 16, 2009
843
71
241
South Central PA
I have three geese out of 12 that continue to have bouts of loss of balance and coordination. They wobble and fall down like they're drunk.

I bring them in, give them high doses of B complex and eventually they return to normal. I turn them back out with the others, and within a couple of weeks, they're staggering again!

Two of the three geese are one year old. They came out of Ebay hatching eggs, so I have no knowledge of their genetics. The third goose is a baby, and possibly the offspring of one of these ebay egg birds.

I have considered a toxin of some sort, and I've given them activated charcoal. I don't know if the charcoal helps or if it is just the B complex that gets them well, but I just can't figure this out!

None of the other birds are affected, so I'm trying to determine if these birds should just be culled or if I should continue to look for another source of the problem?
TIA
 
What are you feeding them? Are they foraging on pasture? Seems odd only 3 out of 12 would do this if a toxin but maybe still possible. Any chance of a vet taking a look at one? Blood work might reveal the problem. I understand it’s not always feasible. They respond to the b complex then revert back maybe it is a nutritional thing which maybe is genetic? Keep them on the B complex for a while longer than you normally do it won’t hurt them what their body doesn’t need they will pee out. When they get like this how long do you give the complex just till symptoms are gone? Asking because maybe if you kept it up for a week or more after symptoms are gone then maybe every few days for a while after that? I sprinkle nutritional yeast over my flocks feed daily they like it an it’s so good for them. But the b complex when there is something else going on. It’s been like liquid gold for our water fowl if it’s a nutrient problem.
 
Awaiting answers. I'm thinking genetic problem. As its only a small part of the flock and B complex temporarily fixes them. I'm thinking their body isn't producing something essential. Blood work done by a vet could help immensely.
 
My geese free range on pasture and live exclusively on grass this time of year. I only supplement with feed when I'm trying to re-hab a weak one.
I was concerned that they might be getting into something toxic in my big pasture with a stream and wetland area, so I've been pasturing them with my goats which has no water access. There were doing well while on this pasture and I assumed the "toxin" was in my stream or wetland. However, the symptoms are back despite the fact that they've been blocked access to the big pasture and water.
I've considered that maybe I'm not keeping up the B-complex long enough to solve the problem. But I dose them with liquid B's, I crush up B100 pills and add that as well as nutritional yeast to their feed (while they are re-habbing). Maybe I need to keep that up longer than just a couple of week?
Could they have worms or something else parasitic?
 
The youngest is about 3 months old, and he was fine tonight when I got home after dark. The worst one of the bunch is gone. I fear a fox got him because he was too weak. The other wobbly one is much better tonight, however I found one of my Exhibition giant dewlap toulouse wobbling too! I am so upset! I guess it's not genetic. It must be a toxin, I am at my wits end trying to figure out what??? It can't be via water, it must be a plant, parasite or bacteria at this point. All I can do now is pen them up and provide them with all food and water, no grazing at all. I don't know what else to do???
 
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@Gray Farms can you pull up the link in the sticky’s about flushes just in case? I’d use the activated charcoal if you decide to try a flush. It might be worth it to try putting out feed along with grazing. At this point it may need to be elimination to find out for sure what’s going on.
 
I have 12 geese on about 7 acres of pasture that isn't grazed by anything else. I have had the main flock for 3-4 years now and have never had any issues. I've always let them graze during the growing season as their main source of food. They have no interest in grain or feed when they have grass. Since I've had these weak ones, I've been penning them in and feeding a 22% protein feed twice a day in addition to 24/7 grazing so I don't think they would be nutritionally deficient?
 

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