Sick gosling! Lethargic and slowed growth! Whats wrong?

[NapoleanGoose]

My four week old Toulouse gosling is acting very odd and I think he may be sick. He is about 1 lb (roughly) and is about half the size of his hatch-mates. He is lethargic and quiet and takes a back seat in the flock. He is hanging out with my 3 week old goslings, but have outgrown him too. Next he'll have to stay with the 2 week olds! He's been outside with his buddies, so I'm not sure how much he has been eating/drinking. I've brought him inside though. He has been acting lethargic for maybe 2 days, but he has always been the very quiet gosling who would walk away from the rest and do his own thing. The other birds are all happy and running around. I had two goslings die last week that had been shipped to me, but put it down to shipping trauma. They had seizures and died within a couple of days of arriving. The other goslings from the shipment are healthy. Theres no sign of trauma and he was not a shipped gosling. I hatched him myself, and all of his litter-mates have been healthy. I can't think of anything that could have caused it, but I will try niacin and Vit. E and see if it's a vit. deficiency. He and his friends have been out on the lawn daily and were inside in dog crates for their first two weeks. I've moved them out to a chicken tractor and have been shutting them up outside. It has been cold, but they were all weaned from the lamp already and none of the others seemed to mind. I will take him to the vet this weekend if he is still like this tomorrow.

This is him next to his brother. These are high quality Toulouse and I understand that they take longer to grow then most birds, but he should be growing up with his brother right? They have different parents but were from the same hatch. Other birds from these parents have been healthy and are big babies. The first picture is of a bird from the same parents. The big birds are in a temp. dog kenel when I am at school and let out in the yard when I get home. He was hanging out with them until early this week.

 

[Diamond Wire Farms]

I'm no expert, but some goslings are just runts. They may require extra care to thrive.
Does he have access to a heat lamp? What have you been feeding them?

 

[NapoleanGoose]

I have been feeding them turkey food because the feedstore doesn't offer anything else that I can feed to the goslings. I'm ordering flock feed soon though. He's under a blanket with a heating pad right now, and I am feeding him cornmeal mixed with karol syrup, vit E and Niacin. I hope so. I'm really worried about him, ofcourse it's the gosling that is friendliest. )":

 

[ultasol]

I think sometimes there are babies that just aren't right. Rarely happens, but I have had it happen with ducks. One has a hard time hatching or is just never quite as vigorous as it's siblings- eventually it dies. Not one you would want to keep to breed from

 

[Diamond Wire Farms]

They always are the sweetest ones.

Hopefully he is just a runt that caught a chill and the extra TLC will recover him soon.

 

[NapoleanGoose]

Thanks. I'm having to force him to eat but now, but hopefully the extra sugar and vitamins will help him.

 

[Goosehaven]

I had one last year that suddenly quit eating her food. I first noticed she was becoming lighter when I picked her up out of the brooder and the others were doubling her in size. Thats when I started paying attention to see if I could catch her eating and she wasn't. I took her to a vet who will see farm animals inour area and he gave her a vitamin and antibiotic injection and I had to give her injections at home for a week. He said if she didn't start eating in a couple days then that would mean she wasn't responding to the antibiotics and would die. She had some sort of infection. Luckily she responded and is now the same size as our other adult geese and has had no problems since. I have no idea if that's your goslings issue but I thought I would pass that along.