Goose with eye infection - seeking any advice
**Signalment:** Male, 5 year old white goose (not totally sure of the breed, but possibly Emden), healthy weight. Situated in the UK
**Short history:** had to be rescued as a gosling (abandoned by mother goose), so was hand raised. Ended up well looked after and well fed on chick crumb & greens (grass, lettuce, some kale), and grew up big & healthy. Was eventually re-integrated successfully with the rest of the flock, but has remained ever so tame. (at this point he isn't livestock, or even a pet - he's family, and we love him to death)
**Symptoms & treatment:** over a week ago he was noticed with a swollen head, and maybe a bit of a scuff around the outter region of his eyelid on his right eye. He otherwise seemed okay in himself, so didn't worry too much at that time. After a day or two developed into swollen eye with thick white discharge, and started getting lethargic.
Sunday 3rd of May - small amount of thick yellow/ white discharge was noticed in the corner of his eye along with more swelling, plus seemed more lethargic. Managed to wipe away the discharge away with a cotton pad soaked in boiled (cooled) water.
Monday 4th of May (bank Holiday) - much more discharge, completely covering his eye. Was much more lethargic, and wasn't eating or moving much. Isolated him from the rest of the flock. Couldn't wipe away the discharge (too thick & stubborn, didn't want to cause more harm).
Tuesday 5th of May - attempted to contact local vets, was told they'd be call back later that night (they didn't...). Order had been placed for animal eye drops - Renasan antiseptic eye drops (hypochlorous acid 0.15ml/litre, water, salt), but managed to pick up some saline solution in meantime.
Wednesday 6th of May - vet called, we explained symptoms & what we'd been doing, and they said we were taking the right steps. No one sent out to diagnose/ treat (not impressed). Soaked a cotton pad in boiled water and saline solution, and pressed the warm pad gently against his bad eye to let it soak - later, the discharge finally fell away exposing his eye. Still very swollen, still very lethargic. Later that day the eye drops arrived, and since then have been applying 2 drops, 4 times throughout each day to both eyes (to be safe).
A few days later his eye started looking better, swelling in his head went down, and has since perked up a lot (back to eating, but has distanced a lot from the flock). His eye started looking a bit better (for a day or two), but then started getting a clear bubbly discharge before getting worse again.
Have continued with the saline solution soaked pads to wipe away dirt & this new discharge (bubbly discharge comes back multiple times a day), and eye drops in both eyes. Right eye (his "bad eye) is now almost totally closed up, and looks practically blind.
Finally, earlier today (12th of May) I noticed a small amount of clear bubbly discharge on his one good eye... And I'm terrified the poor boy is going to go completely blind. Can't even contemplate the idea of putting him down...
**What I've found online:** apparently there isn't a massive amount of info/ knowledge about avian eye infections. Comparing info & pics online to what we've observed, the initial infection may have been conjunctivitis. The secondary discharge though matches up with what others have reported with mycoplasma bacterial infections... Which are life-long, incurable, and are cause to start culling infected birds. People have reported that they've managed to treat symptoms with prescription antibiotics... But by the time we got a response from our local vets, our goose's symptoms went from seemingly manageable to very serious after just one night. Worse yet, every day this goes undealt with, we're likely putting the rest of the flock at risk (we can't completely isolate them, best we've managed is keeping them apart at night).
Anywho... sorry this post is so long. I was planning on making a much shorter post with pictures, but this sub doesn't allow images. Any advice would be appreciated, but if anything I'd want to know if it's possible for a bird to suppress a mycoplasma infection without immediate need for antibiotics. I'd buy it in a heartbeat if they didn't require prescription, and I'm just afraid that it'll be too late if we have to go back to the vets - if they even bother to take a look.