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Can pheasants and other birds suffer from ticks?

For a while now, I have been hand feeding a pet pheasant, ‘Mr P’ who appeared at the tail end of last season. I have noticed he has small dark lumps on his face. What are these?

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PHEASANTS & TICKS
Neil McKintosh
I am glad that a number of these guys who survive a season seem to get well looked after!

I used to wonder why my pet pheasant, ?Bertie?, appeared every time I cut the grass, until I saw the local gamekeeper?s bright red quad bike! It sounds, I am afraid, like ?Mr P? has been attacked by ticks.

These suck significant amounts of blood and can be quite debilitating to pheasants.

There are no drugs licensed for use in gamebirds to treat ticks but your friendly vet should be able to give you a fipronil spray, which will work and is safe.

Unfortunately, you will need to catch ?Mr P? (perhaps with a jacket/net/help from a gamekeeper) and spray the product onto his feathers.

I hope he does not lose confidence in you as a result. I bet ?Bertie? (see my picture) is better looking than ?Mr P?!