Worms in geese

[glenntwo]

Hi all. We just bought a pair of white chinese geese as pets a couple months ago. They are wonderful and quite tame and get along well with everyone, even the dog. But the gander came up lame this morning and I did some research, and it seems that this is a sign of worms.

I called up the feed store where i buy their pellets, and they gave me wazine 17 to treat the problem. The feed store manager told me to just put a capful in their water and it would take care of the problem.

My questions are this: There is nothing on the bottle of Wazine that says it is for use on geese, only turkey chicken and swine, so I am worried that it is not the right thing to use, and also, all the recipes for mixing it with water are for large broods of animals (200-400).

So, will this stuff work, and if so, how long will it take? The manager said that it should work in one cycle of watering, but I'm just not sure. Also, if he is lame now, how long can I expect to wait before we see improvement in his foot? He is still pretty lively and is eating well, but the little guy is pretty gimpy and I'm really worried about him.

We are real novices at this, so any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for allowing me to post and thanks for any info you can pass along.

 

[DuckyBoys]

Did you check the bottom of his feet for bumblefoot? Maybe it is just bumble.

I'd be careful about off lable use though - if the guy isn't sure it's ok with geese I personally wouldn't trust it unless I found some literature that said it was safe.

Maybe someone else hasmore experience but my geese have never gotten wormed.

 

[glenntwo]

He doesn't seem to have any kind of visible injury, but I'm really not sure. Does it look like some kind of lump or something?

 

[glenntwo]

No, theres no signs of any swelling or discoloration. I googled up some pics so I would know what to look for, and it doesn't seem to be bumblefoot. He keeps folding up the webbing in that foot every time he takes a step, though, so I'm wondering if that means anything. Like I said, he doesn't seem sick at all, as he was pecking away, and pulling on my pant leg like he normally does when he wants attention, so I just don't know. I'm sitting on the porch watching them now, and they are wandering about like normal and digging for grubs. I'm sorry, but I'm just really new to this waterfowl thing, so I have no clue as to what is going on.

Also, I couldn't find anything on wazine except the manufacturer's reccomendations, so I think I'm just going to call around town and see if there is a vet that can answer this stuff.

 

[DuckyBoys]

My little goose went lame last summer and it turned out (after some extensive detective work) that one of my dogs must have snatched her through the fence. They had a bad habit of reaching their heads through the wire and nipping the dogs on the nose...this little girl must've been too slow one day and gotten caught.

It took me forever to put all the clues together and figure it out though...

She did recover after a couple of weeks and is one of my best looking buffs now. A little on the small side though because she missed pigging out at a crucial time in development, but still very pretty.

 

[glenntwo]

We are starting to think that maybe it was a predator of some sort. It happened overnight and our dog was inside with us. BTW, we have noticed other things now.

1. His beak is flushed red and seems to be getting redder.

2. He seems to drool, even when he isn't drinking water. This one really worries me.

Other than that, he still eats well, he wants attention, and all the other things he normally does. I don't know if any of these things are normal behavior or not. Maybe we are just noticing things that are normal because we are worried about the little guy.