Swan goose injury - please help!

[adam_b]

Hi friends!

Our 1.5-year old white Chinese goose, Kate appears to have multiple injuries on her bill. Unsure when occurred, noticed today. They seem to have been occurring through a period per the different healing stages. She’s doing well systemically, being herself, but having lost hens after the silliest superficial injuries getting infected I’m really worried.

Context:
I have 4 geese and 2 ganders, 1 white Chinese 2nd brown Chinese. White gander same age as Kate, we got them as a pair of goslings. The other 3 geese and gander all same age and a year younger that Kate. The white gander has always been very aggressive towards us, and during mating season, quite violent with the girls. Nature! My suspicion is that Kate’s injuries are from either of the ganders. What surprised me is that the other 3 females’ bills are fine.

I called my vet, but as usual with bird vets, no appointment until the week after next which is useless.

As I mentioned, she seems herself, but nervous from experience with hens… I know they are completely different species, but don’t know if geese are more hardy…

Appreciate any input or suggestions!

Adam

 

[Jenbirdee]

it doesn’t look too bad, their bills heal well, my gander had a bleeding bill injury from another gander a couple years ago, it healed up nicely. i used vetericyn and neosporin morning and evening (the kind without the pain relief) i kept him in side a clean room for a couple of days so it wouldnt get muddy ( they have a habit of sticking their bill in puddles, I’m sure you know)

 

[adam_b]

it doesn’t look too bad, their bills heal well, my gander had a bleeding bill injury from another gander a couple years ago, it healed up nicely. i used vetericyn and neosporin morning and evening (the kind without the pain relief) i kept him in side a clean room for a couple of days so it wouldnt get muddy ( they have a habit of sticking their bill in puddles, I’m sure you know)

Thank you! So I should take her into the house then for a few days? The meds you used were just over the counter human?

 

[Jenbirdee]

the neosporin or other antibacterial ointment is human stuff yes ( but don’t use the kind with pain relief added)
the vetericyn is this stuff and i didn’t want to get it in his eyes so I sprayed it onto a gauze pad and then dabbed his Bill carefully with it you can also use some thing like povidone iodine, mixed with water ( one part Povidone down iodine nine parts water)
(or a chlorhexidine solution it’s an antiseptic wound cleanser)
https://a.co/d/hMa048J

 

[Goosebaby]

My ganders get injuries like that from cage wars with the other ganders “squabbling from either sides of a barrier,” but I have seen it occasionally on the girls. They get it either from one of the ganders being lame while breeding or from the other girls while squabbling over a nest. Basically one will be on the nest but one of the more dominant girls will try to push her off, poking and biting at her face to get her to move. On one occasion my buff Apricot was trying to get one of my other girls “Tuesday” off the nest and one of my ganders came over and poked Tuesday off the nest, probably to get both of them to quite cackling over the nest.

Point is it could be a gander, but it could be one of the other girls too.

 

[adam_b]

the neosporin or other antibacterial ointment is human stuff yes ( but don’t use the kind with pain relief added)
the vetericyn is this stuff and i didn’t want to get it in his eyes so I sprayed it onto a gauze pad and then dabbed his Bill carefully with it you can also use some thing like povidone iodine, mixed with water ( one part Povidone down iodine nine parts water)
(or a chlorhexidine solution it’s an antiseptic wound cleanser)
https://a.co/d/hMa048J

thank you! Brought her into the garage and put her in one of our dog's large pens, cleaned her bill and followed your advice, she seems happy. We brought them up from goslings, but they were let out free range (electric fence to protect them), as soon as they were a few months old, and became a little wild. When we brought her in, she's super docile, very curious tilting her head looking at everything while pretty chilled and really easy to treat, I'm convinced she remembers us from when she was a baby when we used to handle them. Animals are amazing!