Goose losing balance - due to too many eggs laid?

[catx10]

We have a one year old female embden goose who has laid around 52+ eggs. She began laying on the 15th of Febuary and is still laying as of the 30th May 2024.

In the past few days she has not been well, and keeps losing balance while walking. She walks and stumbles back (even when standing still) so she has been in the pond all day. She also has a beak and legs that are paler than our other female, but she has had this since before she laid.

She free ranges (field and river) so she eats a varied diet and we supplement with egg shells for calcium.

Any ideas of what could be the issue? We suspect all the egg laying had taken a toll on her but maybe could be parasites or an ear infection?

Any advice is much appreciated.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

My first guess is a calcium issue. Does she eat the egg shells?
I would try getting some oyster shell but for the time being, a calcium pill, maybe some tums.

 

[catx10]

My first guess is a calcium issue. Does she eat the egg shells?
I would try getting some oyster shell but for the time being, a calcium pill, maybe some tums.

Yes she and the other goose go crazy for them. They will eat them until nothing is left. We usually give them eggshells maybe once a day (for the past couple days twice) but maybe we should increase this? We weren’t sure how much was too much

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Definitely increase them. If they go crazy for them and eat till they are gone, there's your sign.

I'd get a 50 lb. bag of crushed oyster shell. That will last you a year or two and you are assured she is getting enough. A bird that is producing more shells than they can replenish calcium/carbonate, they can get rickets. Sometimes not reversible.

For a highly productive bird, I don't think they'll overeat them.

 

[Goosebaby]

Does she eat anything besides what she forages?

This sounds like a nutritional issue, either not enough calcium, vitamin E or any of the Bs.

 

[Goosebaby]

Does she eat anything besides what she forages?

This sounds like a nutritional issue, either not enough calcium, vitamin E or any of the Bs.

And D

 

[catx10]

Definitely increase them. If they go crazy for them and eat till they are gone, there's your sign.

I'd get a 50 lb. bag of crushed oyster shell. That will last you a year or two and you are assured she is getting enough. A bird that is producing more shells than they can replenish calcium/carbonate, they can get rickets. Sometimes not reversible.

For a highly productive bird, I don't think they'll overeat them.

Thanks for this. We will order oyster shells and increase the amount we give them. We did suspect this but weren’t sure this was the issue as her eggs didn’t have majorly weak shells. Hopefully we see some improvement!

 

[catx10]

Does she eat anything besides what she forages?

This sounds like a nutritional issue, either not enough calcium, vitamin E or any of the Bs.

We provide corn and pellets usually (as we have ducks also) and she will eat them along with our other geese. Recently we ran out of pellets and are waiting on a delayed order - so maybe this could contribute? She has plenty to forage and we provide other treats like apples, peas, lettuce etc.

 

[Goosebaby]

We provide corn and pellets usually (as we have ducks also) and she will eat them along with our other geese. Recently we ran out of pellets and are waiting on a delayed order - so maybe this could contribute? She has plenty to forage and we provide other treats like apples, peas, lettuce etc.

I don’t know what ratio of corn to pellets you’re supplying but corn is nutritionally poor and it takes a lot of energy to digest it, it’s sugary so they’ll fill up on it like candy over other things and essentially starve themselves. Embdens are one of the largest and heaviest breeds (17 to 20lbs on average) so they’re heavy feeders also.
If you can do a physical examination check her keel, if you can’t feel it she’s obese but if it feels like a prominent blade jutting out from her body she’s emaciated. If she’s too thin you can put her on a recovery formula until she’s back up to a good weight, here in the U.S 30% game bird start will work “I’m not sure what’s available in Scotland” if you don’t have that dry cat food is actually an option, it often has the same protein content.
For geese when they aren’t molting, laying, or using up their energy to keep warm in frigid weather a 17% feed is great, about what most duck pellets are, otherwise you want to aim for a 20% protein feed. Heavy breeds do fine on a 20% year round anyway. Chick start is a decent option for the protein content but it lacks enough B vitamins that waterfowl require so a flock raiser or all flock is preferred, but if that isn’t available chick start with added nutritional yeast is just fine.

If you can get a liquid multivitamin that has Bs, E, D, start giving her about 3 to 6 ml a day down her throat with a syringe, a 12 ml syringe will work best. This will help give her a boost and get her walking normally. Sometimes chronic layers get really low on calcium, vitamin D and E and it can cause them to go off their feet. Other times it’s usually a vitamin B deficiency that’s to blame.

 

[catx10]

I don’t know what ratio of corn to pellets you’re supplying but corn is nutritionally poor and it takes a lot of energy to digest it, it’s sugary so they’ll fill up on it like candy over other things and essentially starve themselves. Embdens are one of the largest and heaviest breeds (17 to 20lbs on average) so they’re heavy feeders also.
If you can do a physical examination check her keel, if you can’t feel it she’s obese but if it feels like a prominent blade jutting out from her body she’s emaciated. If she’s too thin you can put her on a recovery formula until she’s back up to a good weight, here in the U.S 30% game bird start will work “I’m not sure what’s available in Scotland” if you don’t have that dry cat food is actually an option, it often has the same protein content.
For geese when they aren’t molting, laying, or using up their energy to keep warm in frigid weather a 17% feed is great, about what most duck pellets are, otherwise you want to aim for a 20% protein feed. Heavy breeds do fine on a 20% year round anyway. Chick start is a decent option for the protein content but it lacks enough B vitamins that waterfowl require so a flock raiser or all flock is preferred, but if that isn’t available chick start with added nutritional yeast is just fine.

If you can get a liquid multivitamin that has Bs, E, D, start giving her about 3 to 6 ml a day down her throat with a syringe, a 12 ml syringe will work best. This will help give her a boost and get her walking normally. Sometimes chronic layers get really low on calcium, vitamin D and E and it can cause them to go off their feet. Other times it’s usually a vitamin B deficiency that’s to blame.

Thanks very much for your advice, we’ll take this into account and hopefully see some improvement.