Embden Goose, sudden lameness and ultimate death - QUESTIONs

[allanjensaft]

Hi, sad day for us today - one of our 2 year old, female Embden geese passed away in the night and was found dead in our pond. She has been unwell/borderline lame for a few days - we treated for worming when lameness was spotted (4 days ago) and gave vitamin boost daily since, sadly it didn't work (we suspected gizzard worms or some form of spore/mould digestion given her symptoms.

I took the decision to follow some online guides and carry out an "autopsy" to look for any signs of internal damage - here's a summary:
- throat, fine and healthy
- spleen, fine and healthy
- liver, fine and healthy
- heart, presented smaller than I would have expected but otherwise healthy
- crop, presented looking rather empty, she hadn't been eating a lot in last couple of days
- proventiculus/stomach?, presented larger than I would have expected and full of undigested grass, corn and traces of grit (this was salty looking particles about 3mm in size)
- gizzard, fine and healthy
- intestines, presented empty
- ovaduct, presented enlarged and full of a white/yellow substance the consistency of hard boiled egg yolk (no visible egg formation underway)

Other info:
- Yesterday evening we saw spots of blood in her nostril.

My thoughts are it is something related to her digestive system?

Any comments or ideas welcome. I couldn't face taking photos as I did the autopsy.

 

[Leader Bee]

Unfortunately no idea but I did want to say kudos on performing an autopsy, very thorough and shows dedication to learning how to identify problems and help your other birds in the future.