Injured gosling wing

[BrukeyBrooke]

My sweet boy is about 6.5 weeks old, integrating well with the other birds, but I keep the babies penned separately at night so they have 24-hour food and water. Anyhow, when penning them tonight, Woody got his left wing briefly caught in the wire cage and got it right back out with some assistance (he kept plowing forward). Now his wing is droopy? I’ve checked it out thoroughly, and I don’t think it is broken. I can extend it and he’ll pull it back, but not as quickly as his other wing. And he is letting it hang out a bit and flopping it a lot. They get plenty of niacin, but it almost looks like an angel wing (for visual). I imagine it hurts a bit and it’ll need some time to heal, but is there anything I can do to help that along or anything I should watch for?

 

[Goosebaby]

Could you post a picture of the wing?

 

[BrukeyBrooke]

I suppose that would’ve been helpful. I didn’t take my phone out when putting them to bed last night, but I brought it this morning. It already looks a little less bothersome to him. Ya know how they reposition their wings on the regular? He’s repositioning his left one more. He’s at that big awkward gangly phase, and he had his wings part way out when darting into the pen.

 

[Brooke_R]

Maybe he just sprained it hopefully. Electrolytes are always good when something’s wrong. Turmeric helps with a lot of things and it’s an anti inflammatory. You can sprinkle some in his food. You’re supposed to only give 1 teaspoon per 10 pounds of the bird’s weight daily

 

[BrukeyBrooke]

Sorry for the delay - busy week. I had my in-laws visiting and had to send my hubby back to AZ… just wanted to provide an update:
Woody is healing well. I took the advice from Brooke R, using up all of my electrolytes and ordered more on the way. I was really worried for a bit because I saw him try to spread his wings and apparently unable to move that one very far. But as of the last two days, I’ve seen him fully extend both wings. I love this awkward phase where they grow so quickly they can barely manage to maneuver their own bodies.

 

[BrukeyBrooke]

He’s dropping that wing again. The good news is that I have seen him flap both wings simultaneously multiple times today. Wondering what to do now.

 

[Goosebaby]

He’s dropping that wing again. The good news is that I have seen him flap both wings simultaneously multiple times today. Wondering what to do now.

A x-ray to see if there’s anything internal causing that, other than that I can’t say, I have no expierience with this.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Agree with @Goosebaby - if a vet visit is an option, s/he could do some diagnostic imaging that might pinpoint the cause of the problem.

If that's not an option, you could try addressing the wing injury by treating it similar to angel wing: wrapping it against his body with elastic bandaging like Vetrap may provide the support he needs for those heavy wings until the injury heals and/or he regains enough strength in the supporting muscles and ligaments to keep the wing in a normal position.

Good luck!

 

[BrukeyBrooke]

Thank you both! I actually watched both goslings (watching her for comparison) and did quite a bit of internet reading. I’m now thinking they both have a the beginning of angel wing. I wrapped them both today and will keep an eye on them. They have been getting into the adult feed and seem to prefer it, and I’m wondering if it was too much protein for them. I may switch everyone over to the baby food for a few weeks.