Now then chaps, l'm just looking to see if anyone else is seeing the same as l am at the moment.

l stalk a patch in the north of England and in the last two weeks have noticed a marked increase in the external parasite burden on the Roe doe's we have taken. As well as this some of their followers are showing signs of a lost in body condition.
The patch it's self is a bit of a "green desert" with some areas needing opening up to provide better feed and an escape from all the disturbance we get through public and other useage (report to the forester pending)
With the weather as it's been we were also wondering if there has been some ingress back into the area with animals that have lived out the winter in poorer patches than ours looking for shelter and feed, but finding none are now adding to the burden put upon the area to support it's current population.

What parasites are we talking? I suspect you're just seeing moulting of winter coat.

Hi Tran's

No mate l'm seeing hair loss due to an over burden of Lice already, The deer on my patch are not shoving their coats off yet, this all points to stress loss to me having spoken to a Vet' pal of mine.
The last 3 yearlings into the larder we condemmed due to poor body condition and l found a 4th animal (mature) dead in the wood, she was the worst l've seen in the last few seasons with lice from her stifle right up to under her shoulders in extreme numbers.

Dave,

Is that a function of the mild winter and lack of frost t to kill off the parasites?

We are quite lucky in our neck of the woods for the lack of ticks etc on the deer. The rabbits however do get a massive dose of Fleas if we don't get a cold snap to reduce the burden.

Rgds,
Fb

FB.

I feel that this ( warmer winters) may be one of the contributing factors we are faced with. On the BBC recently it was said that we've just had one of the mildest febuary's on record.
I was out bashin' bunnies last night and one was also showing a large infestation of Fleas in it's ears, though most of the others were fairly clear, btw my bunny patch is about 6 miles from where I stalk and in open farm land rather than a forest environment.
Having spoken to the major lease holders it would seem that the on going deer study in our area will have to take into account a whole raft of possibilities regarding our deer plan for the future These to include developement of forest structure, access, and cull plans as well as maybe extending the lease to show commitment to our plans and developement of the area.

Dave.
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