Sick Gosling! Help!!

[echix]

We only have 4 so this is very upsetting. I went out this morning and one gosling the 2nd that hatched a week ago is just standing around like a chicken does when it's sick. I let them out and it kept up with the others but when they stopped to pick grass or drink from their platter he just stood there. Kinda wobbly.

Wasn't like this yesterday at all. Want to catch this before it gets worse! He's not lively like others and something is definitely not right.

I got him out of the pen (parents didn't mind) and put him in a little box w/ paper towel to see what's coming out of him and it's 99% water with just a few little spots of solid material. He pooped like that earlier today too. Twice on the towel and some on my shirt. It's like lots of water coming out but just a little food in the poop and I mean like just enough to make the size of a pin.

I think he's still drinking but is not eating the mazzuri starter from the feeder with the others when they eat and not picking at grass.

Yesterday parents found some sand near chicken pen and they were showing goslings to dig in it and eat it, could have been that? or anything I guess they eat and pick at everything on the ground and I think he might have eaten something not good. I keep it all vacuumed up but parents eat cracked corn from big bowl and drop bits here and there - maybe he ate one of those, I don't know, could have been anything he picked up or got a hold of.....

ACV for goslings??? I have sav-a-chik packet - should I do that?

HELP!! He's going downhill since just this morning.... now just standing there wobbling and others bumping into him...

 

[The goose girl]

The only thing I can think of is there's something stuck in his mouth or throat so he can't eat. Can you see anything?

I'm hoping the best for the little guy!

 

[echix]

No, nothing in there.

I think he might have gotten into a touch of something.

I vacuumed their food area with the dustbuster yesterday (their food is on grass) and it might have been a little wet from the water. I ran to check the dustbuster this morning after posting cause it is the only thing new in there and it had some gunk and what looked like mildew/mold in the snoot of it so I bleached it and have gone on all out war cleaning now.

Their birth coop opens to their current brooding run. Both parents are in there with them. It's an 8x16 on grassy area. Their birth coop is a 4x8 w/door that opens into the run. The birth coop was full of hay and the nest/etc. and had their food/water in there too. In the morning they get up and peck around in there on the grass/hay/food/etc. until I get out there at the break of dawn and open into the run.

The hay has been there for 2 months now (laying and hatching time) and I lifted some of it and it sure smells mildewy under there so I have shut off the coop and am removing all the hay and everything in there today.

I am going to cut a door from the run into the goose barn where I planned to move them as they got older - guess it's time. I have an embden nesting in there and there is a wire pannel separating the two compartments. I will put wood up so they don't bother her privacy and no more birth coop!

Can I spray a light bleach water solution on that ground when I remove the hay or should I just let it dry out --- it sure smells sour. I believe someting in there was the culprit and I am FURIOUS WITH MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's up moving more now... maybe pooping it out helped.

Still need to know about the ACV if anyone can help - do yall give it to your geese? Helps the chickens a bunch when they get frozen up.

 

[echix]

..... no one offered any help with this? Interesting. Hundreds of other posts today but nothing on a sick gosling and advice on ACV usage.

Interesting.

 

[cracking up]

Wow - I wish I knew enough to help. I know people use acv with ducks but not sure about geese. Did you use the sav a chick? I would try that and keep him hydrated. Pedialite seems to work well. Hope he gets better.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

I have used Epsom salts in water for my ducks when they have been off or experienced transitory lameness. I read it can help if they are sick from ingesting mold. It acts as a laxative. You may want to do a search here to see if anyone has used it on baby geese.

In general, though, whenever I have a sick bird I bring them in the house, put a heat lamp at one end of the enclosure, provide food and water spiked with vitamins, and keep a close eye on them. I don't have geese but I do this for my chickens and ducks, and would for geese, if I had them.

Hope your little one gets better soon.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

PS - please don't feel slighted from lack of response. There are plenty of times I have posted and gotten no respond at all. It just may be that no one has an answer for you. Plus, it is a holiday. I truly hope your baby gets better soon.

 

[NYRIR]

How is he doing? I am so inexperienced with geese I can't help. I have had geese two days! Hope all is well...

 

[ellenmartin]

Thanks for all the help - he seems to be doing better today. I'm watching him a lot. They jsut pick up and eat anything and everything! That's something to totally watch. Geese don't have hands so they touch and pick up everything with their mouth!!

Not sure what was wrong, something was definitely wrong.

I heard the ACV acted as a laxative type also.

How much epsom salt do you use for the chickens/ducks?

 

[duck walk]

Some time ago I had a sick gosling...runny nose, head hanging and not eating or moving around...he staggared when he tried to move...no avian vet anywhere and my canine vet was unhelpful...I was on my own with one of my very first goslings and at a loss...I felt he would surely die if I did not do something...I had 250 mg Amoxi capsules...I crushed an Airborne tab into Lime Gatorade, added a tad of the Amoxi...we sat in the rocker together with him wrapped in a towel...about every 20 minutes I syringed a half to a cc of the mixture into his bill...we sat most of the day...I had to keep clearing his nostrils...he looked just like a child with a cold with that runny nose...I kept him under a heat lamp in the bath tub the next day and continued to syringe some of the mixture into him...the third day he was fussing at me and running around wanting to be picked up and carried around...back to normal...I suppose that was totally unorthdox, but it worked...he is alive and well today but he was circling the drain there for a while...