African Gosling - Leg Issues

[bchoats46]

Today while cleaning out my ducklings/goslings tank, I noticed the female gosling walking very strangely. I've heard that improper beddings/flooring can mess with their legs but shes been in there for about two weeks and has been fine, so Im unsure if she was dropped or if flooring was the problem. I use pine shavings for the bedding and have never had a problem before so I am not sure what to do with her. Shes eating and drinking fine. Her legs are sort of facing outwards and where they attach to her body looks very knobby, like its poking up. We bought them march 25th, so Im unsure of the exact age.
Could this happen from being dropped?
What should I do for her legs?
We are taking her to a vet tomorrow but Im not sure theyll know what to do with her.
Ill try and post a picture tomorrow.

 

[jessica117]

How old is she? You might want to check out BYH's sister site Back Yard Chickens . There are a lot of experienced poultry/fowl people here but there are even more there. I've never seen anything like this and I wish I could be more help

 

[bchoats46]

Im thinking she is about 8-10 weeks old. These are our first goslings ever. Weve always had chickens and ducks. I posted on BYC also. Were taking her to the vet today so hopefully they can help us out. I dont want the poor thing to have deformed legs all her life. Thanks for the reply

 

[jessica117]

I would think she'd be too old for flooring issues and pine shavings should be fine. What are you feeding them? We had muscoveys a few years back and durring the laying season their legs would get so weak they could hardly stand. One was always worse off than the others. A couple vet bills later (all he wanted to do was give them steroids, yuck!) we finally tried upping their protien and never had another problem. Don't know if this could be at all related but I thought I'd throw it out there as a possibility.

 

[christy_was_here]

Goslings need a high protein feed, like a game bird food if I'm not mistaken. To me, it sounds like a food issue....but as has already been said, they might be able to help you more over at BYC.

 

[bchoats46]

Feeding starter from the feed store where we got them, we will try to feed her some eggs to help boost the protein, she is on the right and the male is on the left, both standing upright, when she walks she stumbles and walks like she is bow-legged

 

[jessica117]

That almost looks like her hips are dislocated... If they are, I really don't have any advice. I don't like the way her hips look at all. That doesn't look like a food issue to me, though the added protien won't hurt her. Have you posted that pic at BYC?

 

[bchoats46]

I also dont think its a food issue. I was thinking something was dislocated and I have no idea how it happened. Not sure what to do because Ive never had any problems before, I have had chickens/ducks since March 2008. I have dealt with infections but nothing else.
I have posted on BYC, one person replied, said I should take her to the vet. Which Im thinking is my only option since I dont know what the problem is or how it happened.

 

[jessica117]

Sorry. Vet is the only thing I know of too. Wish I had another suggestion. Hope she ends up being ok.

 

[bchoats46]

Yeah theyre closed so were going to take her in tomorrow. I was checking her out again and I think its just one leg and she is leaning her weight onto the other one so. Hopefully the vet can pop it back into place or something. Will let you know how it goes!