URGENT - Gosling with seizures - help!

[Yickenfarms828]

I was hoping you might be able to help!

We had to put down a 3 week old gosling last week because it was having very bad seizures. It started with it losing interest in food, losing the ability to walk, blindness, and then seizures to the point where it was unconscious. This all happened really fast, within about 24 hours, but I thought it could have been a birth defect as that one was very slow to pip and had a long hatch in general. Was never quite right from the beginning.

However, now we have a 10 day old gosling starting to show the same symptoms. Its brooder mate, three days older, is super healthy and that was the case with the last one as well.

I'm fairly certain it's not a nutrient deficiency. They're getting lots of greens, and their food should have plenty of niacin. If there's anything you can think of please let me know! I've looked in all my books and sources on the internet and can't find much about this.

This could be from of being pecked on or Mareks disease

 

[Isaac 0]

This could be from of being pecked on or Mareks disease

Mareks is almost never found in waterfowl, and it could be neurological, but the symptoms make me think more viral or bacterial.

Quite unlikely both birds are experiencing/experienced neurological damage.

 

[skaelia]

Thanks so much for your replies, everyone!

We gave a niacin supplement orally, just as a long shot, and it seems to be working! The gosling is now eating and drinking like crazy, much more responsive, and I have not seen any more seizures - fingers crossed. Possibly for some genetic reason they just need more niacin than other waterfowl I've had? Adding brewer's yeast to chick starter has always done the trick for me in the past, but I'll definitely be switching to flock raiser now. I will keep an eye on it and try to narrow down other possibilities just in case.

The feed/bedding are definitely dry and clean. They were housed separately with different feeders and waterers, sanitized between uses. Their brooder mates in both cases were completely healthy and there were no signs of respiratory illness (eyes clear, no nasal dischage, normal breathing). I have not had any new birds on our property and we've had their parents for a year.

Both goslings effected had the same parents (production toulouse) and took a very long time to hatch (separate hatchings, one incubated naturally and one in an incuabator). Nearly 37 days if I recall, so that's why I was thinking it could be a genetic or developmental issue (unless that's normal for toulouse). Thank you for helping me play detective. Goslings are the cutest things ever, and it's horrible to see them suffer. I'm not sure I would hatch out eggs from this pair again unless I get to the bottom of this.

 

[Isaac 0]

That is interesting, was this just a niacin supplement or did it contain thiamine too, could you post a picture of the bottle? Niacin deficiency doesn't generally cause seizures, that'd be more something a thiamine deficiency would do, or less common D, Calcium, E.

Sometimes setting the bird in a non-stressful environment and administering vitamin's is enough to stop the seizures, so continue to do that, and monitor her behavior, feces, and if the possible weight in grams.

Keep us posted.

 

[Goosebaby]

An interesting thought, I’ve been reading about pesticides recently as this spring there are no pollinators of any kind in my yard, which is odd because normally there’s an over abundance here, I’m wondering if a neighbor has been spraying.

Anyway sulfoxiflor which was approved for use last year can cause neurological issues and liver damage, any study I’ve read so far doesn’t clarify exactly what they mean by “neurological issues” but I suppose seizures could be a possibility.

 

[missnu01]

We ordered 10 mixed embden and toulouse geese from cackle hatchery. They were all great for the first 2 days. Then one started just standing around staring and not eating. The first time you'd see one skipping the food it would be dead within 12 hours or less. And they did that one after another until we were left with only 3... ordered 12 random geese labeled as "weeder geese" from murray mcmurray. They sent 4african geese, 2 white chinese and 6 embden geese. These 12 goslings have grown faster and just acted entirely different than the 10 we received from cackle. And well we still have all 12 being raised in the exact same conditions, same food, same vitamins in the water. So I'm now of a notion that some goslings might hatch, but they just weren't right. Ya know?

 

[Goosebaby]

We ordered 10 mixed embden and toulouse geese from cackle hatchery. They were all great for the first 2 days. Then one started just standing around staring and not eating. The first time you'd see one skipping the food it would be dead within 12 hours or less. And they did that one after another until we were left with only 3... ordered 12 random geese labeled as "weeder geese" from murray mcmurray. They sent 4african geese, 2 white chinese and 6 embden geese. These 12 goslings have grown faster and just acted entirely different than the 10 we received from cackle. And well we still have all 12 being raised in the exact same conditions, same food, same vitamins in the water. So I'm now of a notion that some goslings might hatch, but they just weren't right. Ya know?

They may have had an infection they caught from the hatchery.

 

[skaelia]

That is interesting, was this just a niacin supplement or did it contain thiamine too, could you post a picture of the bottle? Niacin deficiency doesn't generally cause seizures, that'd be more something a thiamine deficiency would do, or less common D, Calcium, E.

Sometimes setting the bird in a non-stressful environment and administering vitamin's is enough to stop the seizures, so continue to do that, and monitor her behavior, feces, and if the possible weight in grams.

Keep us posted.

Update:

The supplement that I gave was the Duravet high level vitamin B complex, which was recommended in the niacin deficiency thread that someone linked. Turns out it does have thiamine in it, so maybe it was actually a thiamine deficiency causing the seizures?

The gosling recovered within hours, and is seemingly in great health now. I gave the supplement for a week, and now they are old enough to be on grass most of the day and I haven't seen any more issues. The effected gosling is still much smaller than its brooder mate who was born three days before, but seems to be catching up.

PSA: I was always under the impression that adding brewer's yeast to un-medicated chick starter was an okay substitute for waterfowl-specific feed, but I've come across two other people who have had issues with seizures on Scratch n' Peck feed (one with chickens, one with geese - both of which were solved with additional supplements) so possibly something about their formulation wasn't meeting the nutritional needs for those particular birds. Or, they weren't accessing all of the powdered vitamins that sink to the bottom. Even though I've really liked their product in the past, but I have since switched to Purina All Flock crumbles just to be safe.

 

[Goosebaby]

Update:

The supplement that I gave was the Duravet high level vitamin B complex, which was recommended in the niacin deficiency thread that someone linked. Turns out it does have thiamine in it, so maybe it was actually a thiamine deficiency causing the seizures?

The gosling recovered within hours, and is seemingly in great health now. I gave the supplement for a week, and now they are old enough to be on grass most of the day and I haven't seen any more issues. The effected gosling is still much smaller than its brooder mate who was born three days before, but seems to be catching up.

PSA: I was always under the impression that adding brewer's yeast to un-medicated chick starter was an okay substitute for waterfowl-specific feed, but I've come across two other people who have had issues with seizures on Scratch n' Peck feed (one with chickens, one with geese - both of which were solved with additional supplements) so possibly something about their formulation wasn't meeting the nutritional needs for those particular birds. Or, they weren't accessing all of the powdered vitamins that sink to the bottom. Even though I've really liked their product in the past, but I have since switched to Purina All Flock crumbles just to be safe.

I’m glad to hear the little one is doing better!