Injured Canada Goose. What should I do?

[Folly's place]

We've had wild geese here unable to fly, and it's still about impossible to actually trap one. Your bird likely can fly, so catching her will not be easy at all.
Snapping turtles, or any night time predator, could have injured her.
Free ranging any poultry is always a risk, either chickens or those cute duckies.
Mary

 

[HeatherKellyB]

We will be on the lookout for snappers. Thank you for mentioning that. I really appreciate it. I have lost two drakes in the past year. One was killed by a neighbors dog and the other one was taken by an owl or Hawk. This goose flew in from who knows where and I don't believe it was on my pond long enough to be injured here, but I certainly won't rule out the possibility. We will be very diligent in looking for snapping turtles. We have a few turtles here but they're 100% definitely pond sliders. Of course a snapping turtle may have moved in without my knowledge easily.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

We've had wild geese here unable to fly, and it's still about impossible to actually trap one. Your bird likely can fly, so catching her will not be easy at all.
Snapping turtles, or any night time predator, could have injured her.
Free ranging any poultry is always a risk, either chickens or those cute duckies.
Mary

Mary, you know that I always look forward to reading your replies <3
The other half tried catching it yesterday without my knowledge and poor little goosie had to fly down to the pond. He knows better now (I hope). It will definitely be a challenge to catch her (we've been calling it a her, but I have no idea) but I figure our best chance will be with a net when she's on dry land. She does allow me to get closer than anyone else, but I'm sure she won't allow me to get that close.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

You see the goose was trying to tell you something was wrong in the pond by coming to your house . If you don't cage the goose you are not breaking any laws that I know of

I don't know how we could treat her or send her to a wildlife rehabilitator to be treated without caging her (actually don't know it's gender, just referring to it as a her)

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I hope this helps you my need to contact a trapper that traps turtles . I used to eat the in stew until I found that one getting my ducks it had Trichinosis worms all through it .

The other half handles the turtle population as I don't want any part of that (I don't like the way he "handles" it). I know that the pond will become overrun if nothing is done, but I just wish there were more options. I don't have a problem with eliminating snapping turtles with whatever means necessary. I know how awful they can be. Thanks again for reminding me of this.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I had to leave to tend chicks . I didn't tell you the rest of the story . I called a trapper that trapped turtles for meat he came over and trapped out the pond it was 1.5 acre he pulled out 3 more one extra large and two medium snappers . He did it free of charge if he could have the meat no problem there !

Wow! I wish I could find that around here

 

[HeatherKellyB]

After staying here for a month and then abruptly leaving, "Gooslyn" surprised us with a visit today! This has certainly made my day. I am so thrilled to see her (of course I have no idea of the gender). She's still not using her foot at all, but she doesn't seem to be any worse and the little bit I've been able to see, her foot doesn't look any different either. Geese are very intelligent (like members here advised me before) and she remembers us

 

[Goosebaby]

You can also try to contact the local humane society, they’ll have a better set up to treat the goose or know vets or rehabbers who can.
If you do contact them make sure to make it clear that you’d like them to treat the bird, not euthanize, it ultimately won’t be up to you but it can sometimes help.

You can also get a permit to own Canada geese and through that route you can take the bird into captivity and treat them as you would any bird you own. I don’t know if you’re in the U.S but if you are here’s the form https://www.fws.gov/pacific/migratorybirds/Permits/wsad.html

If that is your choice I don’t know how long it takes to get the permit but the goose should be quarantined and then not returned to the wild.

 

[Goosebaby]

You can also try to contact the local humane society, they’ll have a better set up to treat the goose or know vets or rehabbers who can.
If you do contact them make sure to make it clear that you’d like them to treat the bird, not euthanize, it ultimately won’t be up to you but it can sometimes help.

You can also get a permit to own Canada geese and through that route you can take the bird into captivity and treat them as you would any bird you own. I don’t know if you’re in the U.S but if you are here’s the form https://www.fws.gov/pacific/migratorybirds/Permits/wsad.html

If that is your choice I don’t know how long it takes to get the permit but the goose should be quarantined and then not returned to the wild.

I just wanted to clarify because I’m being dumb rn and not making a lot of sense, but it isn’t legal to take a wild bird from the wild, but if you had the permit and offered to take ownership should the bird be deemed unable to survive in the wild by the humane society or a rehabber then it’s likely they would release them into your care rather than euthanize.

Also I just saw that she’s coming and going and eating well so it looks like she’s doing great!

 

[HeatherKellyB]

@Goosebaby Thank you so much for your time, knowledge and informational link. Everything you shared has been helpful. I thought about the humane society but I did not call them. I'll try that. We've tried to catch her somewhat, but I really didn't put a lot of effort into it since there was no plan in place (although even with 100% effort, I'm not sure that we'll be able to capture her, in all honesty). The NC waterfowl rescue told me that if I did capture her I was welcome to bring her to them, several hours away. The rehabbers in the area won't take her. She does seem to be doing quite well with her handicap so I wonder if it's bad enough, to put that amount of stress on her. I try to spoil her and feed her as much waterfowl feed as she'll take and oftentimes I'll offer her a bit of scratch after she has her fill of feed. There is a huge lake on the other side of the road from me and I noticed she flew over there right at dark last night. A few times she's slept on our pond, but I know a fox harassed her stalking the bank of the pond at least once and that was the last time. Hopefully she'll come by today to enjoy some feed. I'll try to get a better picture of her foot whenever she's here again to help me gauge whether it's worth the stress. I do feel like her healthy leg having to do 100% of everything might be taking a toll, but this is based on a few hours of watching her. Thanks again