Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Our gander is a little poorly. He looks fine and is eating, drinking, spending time outside, etc but his breathing is rattling. We expect he has the same disease that some of the chickens have had (see 24th December and beyond) although the funny breathing is the only symptom at the moment. His eyes and nostrils are fine: dry and clear. (Look closely at the right hand photo of a cockerel who is poorly and you will see his runny nostrils.)
We had to ring the vets to ask what the correct dosage is for the antibiotic we need to give the gander. For chickens it is 0.5ml just once or if needs be a second dose can be given after 48 hours. For the gander we have to give him 1.9ml twice a day for five days: Geese are a LOT bigger than chickens and our gander weighs over 13kg. We hope to have caught it early enough as losing him would be a blow both for us and for his female. Geese mate for life and do get very lonely when they lose their mate.
The sniffles that we are getting in the poultry are a problem this time of year and even with good hygiene, very hard to avoid. As mentioned in previous posts, think about a classroom and how germs spread. And whilst we can teach you to put your hand in front of your mouth when you sneeze, it's not so easy with chickens!!! What are we saying!! Actually, it's impossible!! For a start they don't have hands... So anyway, back to reality: fingers crossed for Mr Gander!!!