Still not fond of Owls.
Dec. 3rd, 2017 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crazychicknladyOn the morning H went to take her placement exam, I found one of our male geese (H's African, Toronto) sitting in his yard covered in blood. Beyond giving him extra food and water, and a quick inspection to determine the blood was dried and not actively pouring out of his body, I didn't have time to deal with him that morning, so off we went.
That evening I rinsed the goose off, and C urged me to bring him inside for fear of flies laying eggs in his head wound. Not being an unreasonable fear, given our past experience with the girl goose our dog tore up last year, I brought him inside.
I expected, at that point, to post a light hearted story about yet again having a goose living in my bathtub. Unfortunately, his wounds were far more extensive than any of us realized.
At first he showed improvement, and thinking his head and neck wound were the only issue, I figured we'd only have to keep him inside for a few days as a precaution. Yeah, no, he started to stink. I finally realized it was maggot stink when I saw them crawling on his back feathers.
H helped hold him for me as, in the dark, outside, I rinsed him off and examined him way more closely than before. He had deep puncture wounds in his back, something covered up by his feathers, so not obvious to see on a cursory examination. The damage was extensive, obviously caused by talons, and thoroughly infested by maggots.
We did our best to clean him out, but he died the next day.
Our best guess, a stupid owl landed on his back, tried to bite off his head, but had to give up and leave, because geese are way bigger than ducks. Stupid owl, still killed our goose anyway, damnit, and didn't even get a meal out of the deal.
The two remaining white geese have been moved to a smaller pen with better shelter (DH is working on adding even more). Luckily, the other three geese already go into the duck house at night with the ducks, since they've all sort of become one large weird flock.
Stupid, stupid owl.
That evening I rinsed the goose off, and C urged me to bring him inside for fear of flies laying eggs in his head wound. Not being an unreasonable fear, given our past experience with the girl goose our dog tore up last year, I brought him inside.
I expected, at that point, to post a light hearted story about yet again having a goose living in my bathtub. Unfortunately, his wounds were far more extensive than any of us realized.
At first he showed improvement, and thinking his head and neck wound were the only issue, I figured we'd only have to keep him inside for a few days as a precaution. Yeah, no, he started to stink. I finally realized it was maggot stink when I saw them crawling on his back feathers.
H helped hold him for me as, in the dark, outside, I rinsed him off and examined him way more closely than before. He had deep puncture wounds in his back, something covered up by his feathers, so not obvious to see on a cursory examination. The damage was extensive, obviously caused by talons, and thoroughly infested by maggots.
We did our best to clean him out, but he died the next day.
Our best guess, a stupid owl landed on his back, tried to bite off his head, but had to give up and leave, because geese are way bigger than ducks. Stupid owl, still killed our goose anyway, damnit, and didn't even get a meal out of the deal.
The two remaining white geese have been moved to a smaller pen with better shelter (DH is working on adding even more). Luckily, the other three geese already go into the duck house at night with the ducks, since they've all sort of become one large weird flock.
Stupid, stupid owl.
