Sudden gosling deaths

[AmaiahTH]

Hi all,


We recently incubated 2 eggs and got 2 seemingly healthy goslings from it. They were perfectly healthy for 10 days, when one of the two suddenly got very weak, couldn't get up and died several hours later. Initially we thought he might have been cold as it was a chilly day and the window was open, we live in a warm country and never had to use heat lamps for previous goslings, so we then made sure to give the other gosling a heat lamp just in case. All was fine for 2 days, we went to bed and then when I woke up the second gosling was lying dead stretched out in the brood box as well.

They had water and starter feed available at all times, we also fed them some green veggies. It did seem as if they almost never touched the starter feed compared to previous goslings which would eat a ton, but they always ate any vegetables we gave them very quickly. Any ideas on what can cause sudden gosling death? Is it normal for goslings to not want to eat starter feed?

 

[AmaiahTH]

Anyone?

 

[Cazook]

pics of where they were brooded? have you used the heat lamp before? certain coatings on heat lamps or shatter-resistant bulbs can release toxic fumes when heated that can kill birds quickly.

sorry for your losses.

 

[AmaiahTH]

Sure I've attached a picture below.

I raised 2 goslings before under pretty much the same conditions, same light etc. Also they did not have a heatlamp until the first died, then the second one had access to the heatlamp 24/7 afterwards, so I don't think that's the cause. We kept a close eye on the temperature for the 2nd one as well.

The main difference between previous goslings I feel is the diet, but it does seem odd that a gosling would die just from eating greens?

 

[Cazook]

yeah it does seem weird, you wouldn't think eating greens would kill them. did they have access to grit? them not eating the starter feed points to something else though, were their droppings normal? you could send their bodies for a necropsy to try and find out the cause for sure.

 

[AmaiahTH]

yeah it does seem weird, you wouldn't think eating greens would kill them. did they have access to grit? them not eating the starter feed points to something else though, were their droppings normal? you could send their bodies for a necropsy to try and find out the cause for sure.

Droppings didn't seem really off compared to what we've seen before, they always has starter feed available but didn't really seem to touch it.

We already disposed of the bodies unfortunately, just trying to figure out if I'm missing anything so it doesn't happen to the next batch.