Hi all, I have three 18-month-old Toulouse geese, and one of them hatched with a severely twisted upper beak. She has survived pretty well so far and even manages to preen herself, even though her top mandible is only half the length of the bottom one. She can scoop up corn and other feed by moving her head sideways, and can cope with longish grass but she relies on me to feed her cabbage leaves (their favourite treat). I've noticed, though, that the tip of her lower mandible is starting to get over-grown - I guess it would normally be worn down by pressing against the top beak. It's just the very tip of the beak, and it's growing upwards. So far it isn't bothering her, but if it continues to grow it will start to get in the way of her eating and preening... So, can anyone give me any advice? Should I be trying to file her beak down every so often? I can't imagine she'll enjoy that! She's such a sweet-natured little goose, I really don't want her to get into difficulties... Thanks for any suggestions!
The overgrown lower beak may become something of a maintenance issue as it may cause some future difficulties as suggested. However the beak is well supplied to the tip with blood vessels and you would have to be careful. With this bird I would recommend maybe quarterly trips to a Vet for trimming of the overgrowth as filing may be of limited use. Sorry I cant be more helpful - Pete
My suggestion is that you enjoy her while you have her, and if she gets to the point where she can't eat or groom, then it is time to release her. Because I really don't think there is anything you can do about it.
Thanks to you both... I'll ask our local vet to see if they can help. However, of course I don't want to cause her distress. We're keeping a close eye on her (actually, we can't avoid doing so, because she is so very friendly and would happily wander around inside the house if we let her), and if things start to go badly, we'll have to go for the kindest option.
We had a baby duck born like that.And I could not put her down.I thought of everything and did not know if it would live or not.But thank God she made it.There was one thing I done .I had to keep the food bowl full so she could go down deeper to get her food.She could not just scoop it up like the others.But she did not let the others take over.She never had a problem and with her water she would drink right after a big gulp of food.This she done was to get her food to go down.She grew up and ended up being a good Mama Duck.And eggs she did lay and they turned out pretty little Rouens.So she was a Rouen and the Drake was too......Sandra Don`t do anything to that beak she will be fine...
A really good update! I'd been keeping an eye on my little goose's beak over the weekend, and the overgrown bit did seem to be giving her some trouble, so I was worried. Then this morning I let the geese out and fed her some cabbage - and lo and behold, all the overgrown bit was gone! I think she either knocked it off, or it fell off by itself. There is no sign of any bleeding and she obviously isn't in pain, so I guess the overgrown part was just dead cells, like the end of a finger-nail. So no problems, and I now know that if the over-growth builds up again, it can be removed without difficulty. I'm really pleased! Thanks for your advice, everyone.
