A friend of mine out foxing a few nights ago came across a Roe which was clearly sick and I'm curious about what might have been the problem.
He'd observed the animal through his night sight for quite a while whilst parked up and realised that it was still and unmoving for a long time. It stood out because other Roe in view were behaving normally. He drove up to it and it didn't move so he got out and approached the animal which took no notice of him. It was a mature doe and clearly pregnant. He described the animal as standing, but there was a slight trembling apparent in it's forelegs, and it's head was low but nodding all the time. He walked up to it and gently tried to get it to move by pushing it but it wouldn't budge and didn't react to him. Although he enjoys seeing deer and isn't a stalker he realised of course that the animal was very sick and distressed so put it down with a head shot. He looked it over without opening it and could find nothing apparent in terms of physical damage or gunshot wounds. I should add that he's a very competent and observant countryman and perfectly competent to reach the conclusion he did and acted in the animals best interests as I'm sure any competent stalker would have done. This is an area plagued by dog runners which was also in the back of his mind.
I haven't seen the deer (which he removed from the site because it was near a footpath) but all I could think of was a possible car collision despite the lack of obvious injury, or Nasal Bot Fly larvae infestation. I've never knowingly seen a deer with this but my reading suggests an infested deer might show similar signs although it's supposed to be uncommon in England. Out of curiosity has anyone seen this behaviour before or feel they could suggest a problem?
He'd observed the animal through his night sight for quite a while whilst parked up and realised that it was still and unmoving for a long time. It stood out because other Roe in view were behaving normally. He drove up to it and it didn't move so he got out and approached the animal which took no notice of him. It was a mature doe and clearly pregnant. He described the animal as standing, but there was a slight trembling apparent in it's forelegs, and it's head was low but nodding all the time. He walked up to it and gently tried to get it to move by pushing it but it wouldn't budge and didn't react to him. Although he enjoys seeing deer and isn't a stalker he realised of course that the animal was very sick and distressed so put it down with a head shot. He looked it over without opening it and could find nothing apparent in terms of physical damage or gunshot wounds. I should add that he's a very competent and observant countryman and perfectly competent to reach the conclusion he did and acted in the animals best interests as I'm sure any competent stalker would have done. This is an area plagued by dog runners which was also in the back of his mind.
I haven't seen the deer (which he removed from the site because it was near a footpath) but all I could think of was a possible car collision despite the lack of obvious injury, or Nasal Bot Fly larvae infestation. I've never knowingly seen a deer with this but my reading suggests an infested deer might show similar signs although it's supposed to be uncommon in England. Out of curiosity has anyone seen this behaviour before or feel they could suggest a problem?