Volunteers work to rescue sick geese in Coralville as the Iowa DNR urges caution

CORALVILLE, Iowa (KCRG) -Volunteers continued working to rescue sick geese on Sunday as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is urging people to use caution around when interacting with the birds.

On Saturday, KCRG-TV9 learned that the DNR was investigating reports of sick and dead geese near the dam of the Iowa River in Coralville and other nearby areas.

Local volunteers and Iowa Bird Rehabilitation, a Des Moines wildlife organization, discovered more than 50 dead geese and rescued another 50 that were sick late last week.

One volunteer is now trying to save as many sick geese as possible.

Jessica Darby and her family have rescued more than 52 geese in the area this past weekend.

Darby said they’ve been bringing the geese to their home until they can meet up with local rehabilitation centers.

The Founder and CEO of Iowa’s Bird Rehabilitation said the bird’s symptoms appear to be neurological.

Darby said their symptoms include the inability to fly and they appear to be suffering some kind of seizure-some for hours at a time.

“If you look out for even a couple of minutes, you’ll see several of them having seizures. In the water, some of them will go underneath the ice and they can’t get back out from underneath the ice. They’ll just spin,” Darby said.

Iowa DNR Waterfowl Biologist, Orrin Jones, told KCRG-TV9 today that samples from the geese and ducks in the area have been submitted for evaluation and no other information could be provided at this time.

In an email to KCRG-TV9, Rachel Ruden, State Wildlife Veterinarian for the Iowa DNR, wrote “we appreciate the local outpouring of support, but I would urge the public to use caution around sick or dead wildlife as the cause of this event is yet unknown.”

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