GEESE ACTING STRANGE - HELP PLEASE!!

[Anonymous]

We have 2 Embden Geese (male & female). They are over a year old. We have kept them on a small piece of land on our property since they were old enough to be outside. Last Thursday, we moved them to a large piece of land with 2 other young embdens and various other chickens. They were fine at first but then on Sunday, when we went to see them, they could not get up. We left them there Sunday evening and went back Monday morning. As they had not changed, we brought them back to our property to keep a close eye on them. Neither of them can get up. They can move a little but they have to use their wings to pull themselves along. They are not eating a great deal but accept water when offered to them. We are not sure whether they are just exhausted due to the amount of space at the new location or whether they are poorly.
Has anyone else have experienced this. We are worried as they are our pets and would appreciate any advice you can offer.
Many thanks

 

[Tim]

Hi Yorkshell,

That doesn't sound too good.. I wouldn't expect this to happen.

First- are they tame enough to examine? Can you examine their legs for damage? It is unlikely to be a fox as he would go for the neck to kill and for both Geese to be the same but there are other predators that can do strange things - Rats have been known to knaw on the legs of birds before.

Secondly - can you check the field for poison of any kind? Rat Poison, chemicals or similar? Cattle grids, anything out of the ordinary?

I will ask someone I know with a great deal of experience to see if they can help but need as much information as you can give me..

Keep us posted on progress...

Tim

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tim,
Thank you. We appreciate you asking someone for us. It just seems so strange how it's both of them but the other birds on the other piece of land seem ok.
We can't even imagine what could have happened.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks
Michelle & Martyn

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tim,

We normally can't get too close to them but at the moment, they are letting us go near them. We have checked their legs and there doesn't seem to be any damage. There are no signs of blood anywhere.

We will check the field for poison, chemicals etc and will let you know.

The land on our property doesn't have any grass on, but the other piece of land where we took them does have loads of grass. The grass is also quite clumpy so it's not very flat when they are walking round. Could this have caused a problem?

On our land, the geese spent a lot of time laying down in the sun. On the other land, they were on their feet most of the day. I guess this must have been because of the other two geese spent most of their time walking round.

I guess we are just grasping at straws but we just have no idea what has happened.

I'll keep you posted

Many thanks

Michelle & Martyn

 

[Tim]

Hi Michelle and Martin,

I have sent an email and hope to hear soon. If you have a poultry vet near you, it would be worth giving them a call (you could try our poultry vets list on the poultrykeeper.com site if you don't have one) Whilst there are people with lots of experience out there, it's so hard to come up with a suggestion since waterfowl are generally problem free (certainly compared to chickens!).

Are you sure they have been able to get water? This could cause these symtoms.

It's an unusual problem and my thoughts are that they have eaten something the others haven't (as a pair they would probably eat together) or have been hurt in some way or starved of water (could the other geese be stopping them from getting to the water?) - there's not alot else I can think of...

Try to examine the field, geese and surroundings though as you might get a clue from something...

Tim.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tim,

Some good news. The male is up on his feet. He is a bit wobbly but he is up. The female will stand with help and can only take a few steps before she falls down. We gave them some oral metacam this morning so whatever is wrong, this seems to have helped. They are not out of the wood just yet but they certainly seem to be improving.

The male has started to hiss at me and squark at full volume so I know he is starting to feeling better!

We are still interested in whether you can shed any light on this strange incident. We are going to check the field so will let you know if we find anything.

Michelle & Martyn.

 

[Tim]

OK, great. I haven't heard from my friend yet but she is always very busy with things..

Lets hope you can find the cause of it - it's certainly strange.

Tim

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tim,
Just thought you would be pleased to hear that both the geese are back on their feet and are almost back to normal now.
We haven't been to look at the field yet but we will definately check it before we consider taking them back.
Thanks for your help.
Michelle & Martyn

 

[Tim]

That's excellent news...thank you for letting me know. I'm just about to have a conference call with one of the British Waterfowl Association Committees on Skype and it was on my list of things to ask as there's lots of experienced people there!

Tim