Dead Deer

swat1018

5 year old buck +
Guessing EHD. Had a pic of him on the 30th, found hom on the 31st planting.

Neighbor says coonhunters told him the woods smell ripe from all the dead deer around. Sucks, just back to normal from 2012 and 2013.
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Not good. He was a nice looking buck.
 
Bummer :emoji_frowning2:
 
Man I hate to hear that. I have heard reports from NE Missouri getting hit hard this year but so far haven’t heard much about where I’m at in NW Missouri. Hope it doesn’t hit you too hard. My folks lost 50% of their herd several years back and it’s never really fully recovered.
 
That sucks!
I haven’t heard about it in my area. When I was there two weeks ago the ponds were at decent levels and we had rain since.
 
That sucks!
I haven’t heard about it in my area. When I was there two weeks ago the ponds were at decent levels and we had rain since.
I’m hoping we dodged the bullet...and we have had a lot of rain over the past couple weeks
 
I had pics of him the 30th at 1300 hours. Found him dead about 24 hours later. Nice young deer. I'm afraid to dig any deeper...
 
I had pics of him the 30th at 1300 hours. Found him dead about 24 hours later. Nice young deer. I'm afraid to dig any deeper...
I know that trepidation. I hope it’s not wide spread.
 
Me too!
 
Im surprised,all the ones we have ever found didn't look very healthy and they all were just out of velvet close to water.He looks healthy except for being dead
 
That is horrible ... there was a lot of talk of it back around 2012 up hear but it doesnt seem to be a big talk item on the radar around my parts of NW Wisconsin lately - I guess that is one good thing about our nasty winters and cold springs.. truly a bummer to see a nice deer like that down that way.
 
I was wondering if he choked on an apple! I've always been told they die in 24 hours with EHD. His front hoofs looked a little strange too, kinda curved like elf shoes.
 
Generally the first sign of EHD is death. Eyes will be blood shot maybe some slobber. Deer may look perfectly healthy other than that.The hooves are called sleigh foot. Too much high protein can cause that especially in hot dry weather. Indicative of rumen problems. They generally can work thru that though it can be fatal also .

Curious...could he have had access to a large amount of corn? If the rumen isn't adapted that can kill them overnight also.
 
Generally the first sign of EHD is death. Eyes will be blood shot maybe some slobber. Deer may look perfectly healthy other than that.The hooves are called sleigh foot. Too much high protein can cause that especially in hot dry weather. Indicative of rumen problems. They generally can work thru that though it can be fatal also .

Curious...could he have had access to a large amount of corn? If the rumen isn't adapted that can kill them overnight also.

Nope. Less corn planted that usual. There is a corn field, like there always is. He was at the other end of the farm from the field, no corn being fed anywhere around.
 
As you have probably determined, seems EHD most likely. It will be interesting to see if you find other deer with sleigh foot. I see it far more often in the brush country than La. and generally in older bucks...6 or older. These are the ones that can take residence at a feeder cause they are lazy getting significant portion of their diet from pellets. Couple that with extreme heat and dry conditions and thye look like a character from the movie Elf. Usually just sloughs off as conditions improve but as mentioned extreme cases can be fatal.

Which begs the question what the deer may have been eating to cause the rumen issues? And was that contributory in any way to this deers death. Have you found more dead deer?
 
2013 was a nightmare here. They found 40 on the neighboring farm. Most the big bucks gone. That's a big part of what got me into working on habitat stuff.

The past couple weeks the deer here have vanished from sight and cams. Hoping it's just normal seasonal stuff, but there's always that chance.
 
As you have probably determined, seems EHD most likely. It will be interesting to see if you find other deer with sleigh foot. I see it far more often in the brush country than La. and generally in older bucks...6 or older. These are the ones that can take residence at a feeder cause they are lazy getting significant portion of their diet from pellets. Couple that with extreme heat and dry conditions and thye look like a character from the movie Elf. Usually just sloughs off as conditions improve but as mentioned extreme cases can be fatal.

Which begs the question what the deer may have been eating to cause the rumen issues? And was that contributory in any way to this deers death. Have you found more dead deer?

The hoofs weren't horribly pronounced, but they weren't normal. I worked at the farm for a 2 day marathon session and had to return home. It's luck that I found this one. I don't wade into much of the farm, and the most likely area for the EHD deer to end up, along the river, I treat as sanctuary. I have heard from the locals that it's been pretty bad. I didn't see/smell any others.
 
Probably some cases are now in central Minnesota. Time will tell.


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I was wondering if he choked on an apple! I've always been told they die in 24 hours with EHD. His front hoofs looked a little strange too, kinda curved like elf shoes.

I’ve got trail cam pics of a deer choking and dying from apples. It does happen.
 
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