Soft Egg

[OhShelby]

My goose layed 10 eggs and we put them in the incubator when she wouldn't come in off the pond one night. That was 2 weeks ago. In the last week I have found 3 soft eggs from her. The first was in the coop and ruptured but the membrane was present. The second was in the coop but there was no membrane present, just the yolk. Tonight I found one in her pen on the ground with the membrane present but ruptured. Yesterday, I noticed her with stringy clear mucus at her vent but before I could get close enough to inspect it had fallen off. She has free choice oyster shells at all times in her pen. The last couple of days she has looked ruffled, literally. Her feathers are more on end like she is tense. She came up for her romaine this evening but not in her usual fast trot. I feed kalmbach duck and goose, romaine, and free range grazing. Any ideas of what could be going on?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Is there any predators about making her nervous and skittish? That kind of stress can mess with them putting a proper shell on the egg as they push them out too soon.

Is she with other geese? Are they harassing her? Does she have a mate? Sometimes a dominant couple will run a submissive one off the nest, and if caught they will bite and tug at her feathers.

 

[OhShelby]

Is there any predators about making her nervous and skittish? That kind of stress can mess with them putting a proper shell on the egg as they push them out too soon.

Is she with other geese? Are they harassing her? Does she have a mate? Sometimes a dominant couple will run a submissive one off the nest, and if caught they will bite and tug at her feathers.

They have a pen they stay in during the day and we lock them down in a coop at night. They do free range about 4 days a week and swim in our ponds during the day. The ducks are neighbors to their pen but they have been together for a yr. We have one gander, but no other geese. I took her to the vet and she believes it could be Egg Drop Disease which is a virus from wild birds. We do have many wild ducks, crows, tweety birds that visit our fields and ponds. She did giver her an antibiotic in case there was infections. She also took a stool panel but we haven't gotten the results from that yet.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Glad you got her to a vet. Hopefully she feels better soon.