Sick gosling - getting worse fast

[JRies]

The biggest killer of goslings are
#1 Cold
#2 Medicated food
#3 Pasty butt
#4 Lack of grit to set up there gizzard (usually in feed but not always)

Pasty butt is the biggest issue I have had in the past all yeast products or fresh food should be offered with grit.

As for illnesses goose baby and others will help more than I can

 

[Willeboer]

What has the baby been eating? Is a vet an option? because this is severe.

Where did this gosling come from? Has there been any other signs of illness in your flock? Do you have a history of CRD or IBV in your flock? Have you seen anything moldy around?

Have you noticed any strange droppings from any of your birds? White, black, red, pink, orange, yellow? Any supper watery or bubbly droppings?


This seems like a respiratory infection, it could be lower intestinal but my guess is lower respiratory. The leaping up is them desperately trying to get more air in because the lower airsacks are congested.

I’m sorry but this is a poor prognosis, the little one needs oxygen and will most likely require veterinary intervention to get better.

A bit of Mixed Fowl Food with the bulk being Pullet Grower to which I added some Brewers Yeast. Recently changed the Grower as the previous one was Layer Grower and marked as suitable from 8 days and the supplier insisted that's what there is. We don't have a huge selection of feeds to choose from.

I have not had good results from taking birds to any of our vets.

I had 2 Muscovy ducklings (same general enclosure) who were lethargic - put them back with the mother this morning. the smaller one is 2 weeks older than the bigger one (whose feathers are starting - hatched in the incubator and adopted by the mother) and her same aged brothers are fully feathered, but she's small (really small) and no signs of feathers yet.

A goose in the flock hatched 2 eggs out of 6 and the other chick seems to be fine - it still breaks out of their enclosure and raids the hen sleeping area driving the parents mad as they can't get there. This is the only hat hings this season. Another goose tried twice with no success and those in the incubator also didn't work.

I am not aware of any diseases in the flock or mould - though we did have a month's rain in a single day a few weeks back and the chicken droppings from the sleeping area became almost cement-like.

I have noticed a thick black dropping that flies love in a few places - think it's the adult geese. Outside the nursery area with a fence separating the flock from the parents and 2 goslings.

 

[Willeboer]

The biggest killer of goslings are
#1 Cold
#2 Medicated food
#3 Pasty butt
#4 Lack of grit to set up there gizzard (usually in feed but not always)

Pasty butt is the biggest issue I have had in the past all yeast products or fresh food should be offered with grit.

As for illnesses goose baby and others will help more than I can

Do you mix grit in with the food or separately?

 

[JRies]

It looks like a bad case of pasty butt. I would run warm water and with a wash cloth dip the butt in the warm water dab with was cloth and repeat till you have loosed up the clog. The full digestive system may be closed down. Baby grit (chick grit can be offered ether way) But till you remove the clog nothing will help.

 

[GEESES Peanut Butter Cup]

Every bird I have taken to any of our vets is euthanased - I don't think they know where to start treating

Then don't take them there.

Make sure the temperature is high enough for a gosling (refer to http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/mmissue111.htm ). Some goslings get sick easily when it's too cold.

Make sure the air is dry enough (in case it's a fungal issue).
Still, always keep clean water available.

How did Doxy-Max go? Did it improve the baby's conditions?

@Goosebaby mentioned something about respiratory issues to me before:
Possible causes of conditions: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...sick-with-severe-gaping.1542210/post-26030119
How to get some of the medicines: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...sick-with-severe-gaping.1542210/post-26030132

Does the baby try to clean its nose seemingly excessively sometimes? When my gander had a fungal issue, the vet prescribed sporonox, but I read on a book that the dosage is tricky for small sized birds (a gosling is small).

 

[AGeese]

A bit of Mixed Fowl Food with the bulk being Pullet Grower to which I added some Brewers Yeast. Recently changed the Grower as the previous one was Layer Grower and marked as suitable from 8 days and the supplier insisted that's what there is. We don't have a huge selection of feeds to choose from.

That's probably it. You'll need to order food if you don't have a proper selection of waterfowl starter locally. Way too much going on with mixing feed intended for an adult mixed flock, and if your pullet grower is medicated that's another issue. Goslings can die from medicated chick starter. On top of that pullets are not comparable with very young goslings.

If you're losing goslings, I'd say get the feed right before anything else.

On your question about grit, just set some small size chick grit in a pan separate from the food. They'll take to it as needed, just like water, and water is very important to have ready for waterfowl because they need it to clean their beaks.

 

[Willeboer]

Thank you all for your help.
The little one died this afternoon.
So far it's sibling with the parents seems to be fine.
I will try to source other feed.
(Have a tiny Muscovy that hatched in the incubator 2 days ago)

 

[Goosebaby]

Thank you all for your help.
The little one died this afternoon.
So far it's sibling with the parents seems to be fine.
I will try to source other feed.
(Have a tiny Muscovy that hatched in the incubator 2 days ago)

I’m so sorry, I did mean what I said though, the prognosis wasn’t good with symptoms that severe so there isn’t a lot you could have done to change the outcome. A vet could have tried a few things but that doesn’t mean it would have ended up differently, an it would have needed to be a competent vet that understands what needs to be tried and not one that just euthanizes, so there really isn’t really anything you could have done besides what you were already doing.
I’m so sorry.