Newly hatched gosling- she looks like she is drunk

Aussie Farm Gal

Hatching
May 11, 2024
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HELP!!! I have just had the first gosling hatch (with help from dotti the chicken) but after 13hrs she still is not walking. She just flips around.

Background info:

Margret (goose) started laying her clutch of eggs and Dotti (the chicken) found the spot and decided to lay her eggs there also. Fast forward a month and Dotti has successfully hatched 13 chicks and this morning I went to check her nest and saw that one gosling had started to hatch also. I know that Dotti had not resumed sitting on her remainder eggs or the geese eggs and had not been back to the nest in 24hrs.
So I took the hatching gosling inside and warmed him up (it’s almost winter and nights are getting quite chilly here) and to my surprise there was movement. An hour later she was out and making noise. I put her on a heat pad ensuring that it was 35 degrees (as that is what I have read) and left her to her own devices (dry off and rest) Upon checking on her through the day she has not found her legs and looks drunk, 13hrs after hatching. According to sources a gosling will be able to walk a couple of hours after hatching, but she has not developed that ability. I have checked her over and her feet are fine. She is nice and fat.
This is my first gosling baby and I have googled numerous things to see if I can find out what is going on with her, but I’ve had no luck.
I have a video showing what I mean by her acting drunk.
Can someone shed some light on this situation? Was she cold for too long before I found her?? Could she have a neurological problem?? Pease help Gabby (that is her name)
 

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Sometimes they’re uncoordinated and they fall a lot when they’re first starting out. The legs/feet don’t look bad to me from your photo, give it another day or so to rest and get stronger.
 
I have a runty baby, took him a full 12 hrs just to be able to hold himself upright, and another day to wobble walk around with his clutch mates, and 48 hrs to keep up. He hatched late, more than a day behind his clutchmates and that was with help. His egg was THICK and he had a hard time pipping, I had to use a dremel to get it started. Give it time, I have also noticed it takes longer for geese to get steady on their feet than other fowl. We just had 25 ducks and 9 geese hatch this past week, and it took the goslings twice as long as the ducks to be able to get around without falling over! For the first day they would stand, take a few steps then plop back down. Using those new muscles is exhausting!
 
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If you have nutritional yeast or some liquid B complex add a few drops to Gabby’s water. If she doesn’t drink that’s fine, goslings are still reliant on their yolks for the first day or two and only start developing appetites after so don’t force feed her food or water, just offer her some of the vitamin water now and then if she wants any, it will give her a boost.

My goslings have always been really wobbly and pretty much just scooted their first day. By day two they were a little better but still uncoordinated and only able to walk or even stand for short periods. Wild geese are probably more precious and up and running around far quicker.
 

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