Wobly 1.5 month Toulouse Goose. Help Please

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Good evening. We acquired a pair of Toulouse Geese on 5/8/2010. We love having them around the yard.

They have been happlilly grazing on grass and other plants in our yard, swimming in a small stream in our pasture, and are very friendly. The female started out larger than our male. In the last two weeks, the male has grown much more quickly than the female. Now he is close to twice her size.

Since he's started this recent growth spurt, he has started wobbling when he walks. He will stumble and fall on his butt. Additionally, when he walks, his legs shake. Even when he's in the water, he does not seem to be as graceful as he once was.

We are starting to get a bit worried about him. Can anybody shed some light on what may be going on?
Here are some pics of our geese.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060013&id=1329444707&l=76551bc9da


Thanks!

John
 
Hi John, a few questions :) Are there any injuries? has he been knocked over/caught anywhere? Has he been picked up /dropped? what are you feeding them? has the pasture had poultry grazing it before? goslings are very fragile on their legs for a good few weeks- and toulouse grow so quickly sometimes it takes a while for them to settle down and become steady on their legs. you may need to worm them - i would ask a vet for the right product- over here you can use Flubenvet but i don't know ifyou can get it where you are. ( USA i guess?) If no improvement, then a trip to a vet is the best advice i can give you. I keep lots of toulouse and have a good few goslings at the moment. Keep us informed as to how he goes, hope he is better soon,
regards, David :)
 
David,
Thank you for your reply!
Thankfully, neither of the geese have been dropped, trapped, etc. We've been quite careful with them, as we have never kept them before. We are constantly picking them up, holding and petting them. They even sleep on our laps.

I have seen "lopez" our male tumble down a slope in our yard. Just yesterday, he tripped over himself and ended up on his back, stuck. We had do go pick him up and place him back on his feet.

For feeding, we have been allowing them to graze in our yard and pasture. They eat clover and grass. Additionally, we have a pan of commercial feed available to them at all times that was recommended by our local livestock market. As far as I know, the pasture has never had any poultry grazing on it before. We have chickens that also graze in our yard, but in a different section than the geeze (they are seperated by fencing).

We started looking for a vet in our area that could care for poultry/waterfowl. We have not had any luck so far.
Thanks!
John
 
Hi john, just be careful picking him up- when young they are very fragile- their "hip" bones can bend and cause all sorts of problems- i didn't mean that you had dropped him :D Just that if he has had a fall then that could explain his symptoms- try to keep him in a smaller area- so he doesn't get too tired and fall over- he should improve every day- keep on with the grass/feed and plenty of water- they will need some grit to grind their food/grass - unless the feed has it in already- i hope he makes a good recovery :) Would love to see a pic or two if you can manage it :) There are some of mine ( two days old) in the photos of watewrfowl section. good luck and keep us informed, regards, David :)
 
The wife is setting up a smaller pen area for them for a while, on flat ground. Hopefully, that will give him a bit of time to heal or gain enough strength in his wobly legs to remain stable.

I've posted a couple of pics in the waterfowl photos area: http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1741

We absolutely love these guys. They are so interactive and sweet. They follow us all over the farm like puppies. Thanks again! John
 
During the day, they are outside. The temp has been hanging in the high 60's to mid 70's for a bit. They seem happy with that. At night, we bring them into a pen in the garage that has heat that will kick on when the temp drops. They have a large box with a straw bed they have taken a liking to. John
 
Hi John,

You mentioned commercial feed -perhaps you mean wheat... but we have what we call 'growers' pellets over here that are higher in protein than the standard feeds. Some growers pellets contain a drug to prevent Coccidiosis. Various anticoccidials have been added to both chick crumbs and growers pellets by some manufacturers.

The problem is, the dose that they use is fine for chickens but waterfowl usually eat more and overdose. It can cause them to go off their feet. Maybe you could check the contents...

Another thought if he is on a commercial feed :? - perhaps David might like to comment on with his experience of keeping Toulouse ;) is maybe he is just growing too fast? Maybe just use a 50/50 mix of wheat and pellets in a bowl and ad lib grass would do the trick? - i.e lower the protein content of the food so his body doesn't put on so much weight before it has had a chance to develop / strengthen??
 
Hi John, yes, good advice from Tim, but if you got the feed from a feed merchant- i should hope he knew what he was selling you 8-) If they have access to good, fresh growing , green grass you will find they will not eat lots of hard feed- so no need to cut down on that- they should have it ad-lib - goslings kept indoors tend to have too much protein and some will develop "angel wing" ( this can be easily corrected when young- once adult there is no cure). I still think he has had some kind of fall/knock- it does take ages for them to recover- sometimes a week or two.
regards, David :)
 
Tim and David,

Thank you for the advice. Yesterday was their first day without a tray of feed handy. When I brought them in for the night, I placed a small amount of food with them in case they became hungry overnight.

It was almost comical. You'd have thought they had been starved to death. I will check the contents for the drugs. I do know that we switched from the 'starter' crumbles we were feeding our chickens to a 'maintenance' pellet when we acquired the geese, supposedly for that exact reason. I did not check the contents.

We'll keep them penned into the small, flat area in the yard for the next couple of weeks with very limited access to any commercial food to see if he improves.

Thanks! John
 
Just wanted to give an updated on our wobbly goose. For the past bit, all he has had access to has been what he decides to forrage from the yard. He does appear to be getting better, though slowly. He doesn't fall down as much and is walking better. He still has a bit to go. About once a day, he will still manage to 'turtle' himself and get stuck on his back. Sheila (the female) will stand by his side and yammer loudly to get our attention so we can go flip him back over.

We have called all of the vets local to our area and oddly enough, none of them see geese. Our next stop will be one of the universities if necessary. We'll do anything to keep him as healthy as possible. He's become such a part of our family. His name is 'El Robato' from one of the characters from Red vs Blue with nickname of 'lopez'. We also call him 'love pest', as he is such an affectionate goose. If you sit down in a lawnchair ouside our love pest will come and honk at you until he is picked up and sits on your lap. Then he just makes really quiet honks and rubs his head all over you.
 
Thank you for spending the time to give us an update. He sounds absolutely adorable and I hope he continues to recover.

Tim
 
Hi, good to hear he is a little better :) hope you get to the bottom of the problem-he should have been fully recovered by now-let us know how he gets on.
regards, David :)
 
The good news is that our wobly goose has recovered. A good trimmed diet and containing him to flat ground for a few weeks seems to have helped him to overcome his issues.

Thank you all for your advice!
 
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