What causes droppings like these?

[Goosebaby]

Might have wondered off into the neighbour's yard?

Any brake fluids or the like?

None have wandered out of the yard, they’d have to wander pretty far to get to anyone else’s yard. I can’t say that I’ve noticed any leaking brake fluid but I can’t rule it out, I’ve seen all of my geese at one time or another roam around and poke at the cars.

 

[Goosebaby]

Earlier this morning he had fairly persistent diarrhea looking all pretty much like this




He was also really gassy and was flicking his head repeatedly.

He doesn’t have a runny nose and it seems to have subsided so far.

At this point I’m thinking worms or the probiotics are kicking in and causing a lot of gas and stomach upset.

 

[Goosebaby]

I’m going to wait and see how this progresses, he’s alert and so far more active today compared to the last few days.

 

[Sierra G]

You might want to consider weaning him off all the antibiotics for two weeks and just give the probiotics a chance to work by themselves, especially since he seems to be doing better. I'd probably back off the milk thistle and aloe too since what the right dose size is for supplements isn't always that easy to calculate.

Not only will that give you an opportunity to evaluate him independent of the meds, but it also reduces the opportunity for any bacteria to develop increased resistance to antibiotics. Perhaps just stick to one medication what you think is working best and/or damaging him the least if you feel he still needs treatment.

Mom eating dirt shouldn't be a problem. A goose's digestive system can deal with dirt, even if she seems to be eating lots of it. It's usually because she finds dirt that is mineral rich or otherwise tasty. Unless the soil is contaminated it's not dangerous even if it seems weird.

 

[Goosebaby]

You might want to consider weaning him off all the antibiotics for two weeks and just give the probiotics a chance to work by themselves, especially since he seems to be doing better. I'd probably back off the milk thistle and aloe too since what the right dose size is for supplements isn't always that easy to calculate.

Not only will that give you an opportunity to evaluate him independent of the meds, but it also reduces the opportunity for any bacteria to develop increased resistance to antibiotics. Perhaps just stick to one medication what you think is working best and/or damaging him the least if you feel he still needs treatment.

Mom eating dirt shouldn't be a problem. A goose's digestive system can deal with dirt, even if she seems to be eating lots of it. It's usually because she finds dirt that is mineral rich or otherwise tasty. Unless the soil is contaminated it's not dangerous even if it seems weird.

Honestly I was thinking of dropping the cipro too, he’s already off the cephalexin. Today he went without the aloe and only had a small amount of milk thistle, his droppings aren’t too weird, his urine and urates are normal so I didn’t see the necessity in aloe today.

Thanks for the info about his mom! That takes a lot of worry out of my life!

 

[Goosebaby]

Yesterday and the day before he was a whirlwind of energy despite his morning bouts of diarrhea, he had it yesterday morning too but not as bad as the day before. He tried starting several fights with the other geese so he’s been feisty.

Today he’s subdued, quiet, non feisty, isn’t as active and his appetite is weak. He barely touched his food last night or today and he typically wolfs down anything I’ve given him the last week. His droppings last night and early this morning were really dense so I know he was constipated, they’re getting looser now.

I’m hoping he pulls out of this as the day progresses and this is just an effect of digestive turmoil from his gut flora being depleated and then doubling his probiotic and not something more serious.
I didn’t give him any probiotic yesterday, I figured he could use a break. His gait is less wobbly today so far.

Constipated dropping from last night.

 

[Goosebaby]

Roxby’s been averaging 12 pounds the last several days and his energy is up, droppings are more normal so there’s progress.

 

[Goosebaby]

When one problem seems to be solved more rear their ugly heads.

All of my flock have had white diarrhea the last several days with mild sniffles in the morning.

I made a separate post about it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/white-diarrhea.1475787/

 

[Goosebaby]

I’ve been giving everyone crushed garlic and fresh lemon or RopaPoultry in their water buckets, everyone has the sniffles to varying degrees still, though that seems to come and go. Overall their symptoms haven’t gone away.

Roxbury’s dropping this morning. That’s pretty much what everyone’s looks like off and on through the day.


This is his mom’s Apricot who generally seems to be the worst effected, I had one other that felt awful and didn’t move or eat for a day but was pretty much fine the next, so it’s been Apricot who’s consistently felt worse overall, she still eats and moves around but she’s fluffed, hunched, has worse congestion that the others, has had her symptoms the longest, and now these dark droppings which I’m assuming is blood from somewhere in the upper digestive tract unless she found something black to swallow that I don’t know the identity of or where she could have gotten it. So far she’s had a few that look like this today.




At this point I think I’m going to lose it with all of this.

 

[Goosebaby]

I haven’t seen any more black droppings out of Apricot so maybe it was just something she ate, which is now something else to worry about because WHAT WAS IT.

She and the others are doing well, not showing any real noticable symptoms except Roxbury who still has more of the white diarrhea and is now wheezing, feeling lethargic, and his bill and feet are very hot to the touch, he doesn’t have a runny nose.

I’m terrified that after being sick and underweight so long plus the antibiotics his immune system was barely managing and after whatever respiratory sickness went through the flock it further weakened him and he caught Asper. I can’t afford testing or treatment, not that it would probably matter, asper is pretty much incurable.