[Pheasantrescue]

Hello, can anyone please tell me what is wrong with our pheasant please and if there is anything I can do to cure him?

He has a puffy swollen pink area either side of his beak.
Has his beak slightly open.
Throws his head back from time to time.
Spends a lot of time dozing with his feathers fluffed and eyes closed.
Only eats the soft food I make him.

We live with estate land all round us where pheasants are bred for shooting. There are lots of pheasants in the woods and fields. This one was hanging around the garden for months. We used to give him bread, sunflower seeds etc. and he would also go right into my neighbour’s house for food. He was always very alert and quick but his beak was always a bit open. 
About ten weeks ago he started to  sit huddled up next to our french windows for ages and we noticed he wasn’t looking well,. Then would sit his eyes closed sometimes making ‘gulping’ movements, throwing his head back as if trying to swallow. He got so bad I could just shoo him into a run so that we could take him to the vet.
The vet swabbed his throat, said he had ‘flounce’ which is apparently canker and sinusitis. He was given Flagl S and another antibiotic for the sinusitis.  I was told to put the 2.5mm of Flagyl S and the .15 mm of the other antibiotic into his water. After the first day he just wouldn’t drink the water. I wasted about four days of medicine before realising he would take it if I put it into some soft food made from boiled egg mashed with a little bread, which is his favourite. So he then had eight days of these medicines. The vet wouldn’t give me any more and said he would have had enough.
He only seemed slightly better and almost immediately seemed just as bad so I kept him in the run with a nice dry hutch attached.
After looking on the internet I thought he might have gape. So I got some Flubenvet and gave him a course of it. This course finished about two and a half weeks ago. His eyes looked better after this but there is clearly still something wrong with him. He still has the puffy swelling of pink area either side of his beak. Now this morning I notice that one of his eyes is closed.
I really don’t know what to do next. I put a little poultry tonic with vitamins in his food but nothing has worked yet.   Any ideas much appreciated.
Thanks
Pheasantrescue.

[aggers]

It sounds to me  that the vet has basically told you that theres not much else that can be done.Hopefully he will make a speedy recovery,sorry I cant help with the problem,but nice to know that there are people like yourself that care.Please post and let us know how you get on,hopefully a happy result.Well done.

[Casey76]

If you think it is gape worm, then you will need to worm again.  I'm pretty sure you need a double dose of flubendazole (but check on the side of the pot)

With the antibiotics, you would have been better off syringing the water + medication into him.  Unfortunately some antibiotics are inactivated, for want of a better word, by mixing them with food.

Are you feeding him proper pheasant food?  Pheasants need a higher protein ratio than hens, so need a different formulation

I hope he reocvers soon.