Injured goose - advice please?

[bokbokbwark]

How is your goose?

She's doing really well, thank you! In the night she busted her way out of the isolation ward to be with her flock and seemed completely recovered next day. I checked her keel and she's definitely not thin, and she's standing up for herself in interactions, so I'm letting her stay with the others. The only suspicious thing is she hasn't developed a brood patch this year - last year she was the broodiest goose around! Not sure how significant this is though.

Thanks so much for all your advice - I hate to think what would've happened if I'd left her in the pond!

I'm still puzzled by what caused this. Either an invisible injury or something neurological is my best guess. One thought - the pond has vertical sides, so I had put a piece of terracotta pipe in there to make it easier for them to get out. But I noticed them hitting it with their legs a couple of times while swimming or mating - maybe that was how she was injured? But could an injury heal so quickly?

Like you suggested, a sciatic nerve issue seems to make more sense. Marek's disease sounds scary - hopefully the fact that she recovered means it's not that? Could it be she just bruised the nerve?

I think I'll redesign the pond to have sloping sides, that will be much safer, and more pleasant for them.

EDIT - oh dear, I just read that paralysis with Marek's can come and go... maybe I should isolate her? But that would be super traumatic for her, and the others are presumably infected already if it is that.

 

[Goosebaby]

She's doing really well, thank you! In the night she busted her way out of the isolation ward to be with her flock and seemed completely recovered next day. I checked her keel and she's definitely not thin, and she's standing up for herself in interactions, so I'm letting her stay with the others. The only suspicious thing is she hasn't developed a brood patch this year - last year she was the broodiest goose around! Not sure how significant this is though.

Thanks so much for all your advice - I hate to think what would've happened if I'd left her in the pond!

I'm still puzzled by what caused this. Either an invisible injury or something neurological is my best guess. One thought - the pond has vertical sides, so I had put a piece of terracotta pipe in there to make it easier for them to get out. But I noticed them hitting it with their legs a couple of times while swimming or mating - maybe that was how she was injured? But could an injury heal so quickly?

Like you suggested, a sciatic nerve issue seems to make more sense. Marek's disease sounds scary - hopefully the fact that she recovered means it's not that? Could it be she just bruised the nerve?

I think I'll redesign the pond to have sloping sides, that will be much safer, and more pleasant for them.

EDIT - oh dear, I just read that paralysis with Marek's can come and go... maybe I should isolate her? But that would be super traumatic for her, and the others are presumably infected already if it is that.

It easily could have been an injury that she’s recovering from, something that shocked her nerves or made her sore enough that she didn’t want to move.


Mareks is probably unlikely. I haven’t found any legitimate cases where a goose has contracted the disease. I’ve found referencces that say it’s possible because of a goose who allegedly did, but they’re all pretty much referencing a case where it was suspected but never confirmed, and the case in particular I haven’t been able to pin down where and when it happened, there isn’t any hard evidence or records attributed to it, so it’s fairly questionable wether it happened at all in my opinion, and if it did there’s a high likelihood it was misdiagnosed because there are a number of other things that can have similar symptoms.

So there’s really nothing out there that says wether geese can get it or not, but considering how unfortunatly common mereks can be in backyard chicken flocks but there aren’t apparent cases where geese or ducks have gotten it I don’t think waterfowl are very suseptible to it, if at all.

By the way what do you mean by a brood pouch? Do you mean the lobes that geese get?

 

[Miss Lydia]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/obturator-paralysis.1438777/

 

[bokbokbwark]

It easily could have been an injury that she’s recovering from, something that shocked her nerves or made her sore enough that she didn’t want to move.


Mareks is probably unlikely. I haven’t found any legitimate cases where a goose has contracted the disease. I’ve found referencces that say it’s possible because of a goose who allegedly did, but they’re all pretty much referencing a case where it was suspected but never confirmed, and the case in particular I haven’t been able to pin down where and when it happened, there isn’t any hard evidence or records attributed to it, so it’s fairly questionable wether it happened at all in my opinion, and if it did there’s a high likelihood it was misdiagnosed because there are a number of other things that can have similar symptoms.

So there’s really nothing out there that says wether geese can get it or not, but considering how unfortunatly common mereks can be in backyard chicken flocks but there aren’t apparent cases where geese or ducks have gotten it I don’t think waterfowl are very suseptible to it, if at all.

Thanks, that's very reassuring! I had thought geese didn't get it, but then I came across this while googling:
"Recent years have also confirmed that it can also occur in geese. Several cases have already been recorded in Poland, both in the flocks of reproductive geese, but also in the flocks of geese intended for fattening [49]. In the case of breeding geese, Marek’s disease is found in birds in the 2nd and 3rd laying season"
from https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/77455

In retrospect I shouldn't have panicked - 'several cases in Poland' does not a pandemic make!

By the way what do you mean by a brood pouch? Do you mean the lobes that geese get?

I meant the bare patch on their chest where they pull out feathers to make the nest - is that not called a brood patch?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/obturator-paralysis.1438777/

Oooh that could be it! There was a new egg... Fingers crossed, the other alternatives sound less cheerful!

 

[Goosebaby]

I meant the bare patch on their chest where they pull out feathers to make the nest - is that not called a brood patch?

Yeah I’ve heard them sometimes called that, just making sure because I’ve also heard lobes called all sorts of things and I’m not always sure what people are talking about.
If her lobes had disappeared that would have been a problem because those are fat stores. Not all geese have them though, chinese type geese are usually more trim.

Also thank you for sharing the link!

 

[Jenbirdee]

when did she last lay an egg? if she is eggbound that can make her limp/not able to walk. Im watching my goose carefully today because I think she may be eggbound so I gave her calcium gluconate today and praying it helps

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sometimes they need more than one dose to get the egg moving so don't wait too long before dosing again.