# Whats wrong with this deer?



## koonzie99 (Apr 25, 2012)

What do you guys think is wrong with this deer? I could have shot it both Friday and Saturday but I didn't want to waste my buck tag and I wouldn't want to eat any of the meat. I emailed the DNR just waiting back on there answer. I hope its not CWD or EHD.


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## Scum_Frog (Apr 3, 2009)

thats really odd......I would pin it more on CWD than EHD.....hope its neither and the deer has an internal issue itself. Odd.


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## squid_1 (Jun 2, 2005)

That is weird. Better dump some more corn out.


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## koonzie99 (Apr 25, 2012)

Im leaning towards CWD. When i look up pictures of deer infected with CWD they look that this deer.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

Scum_Frog said:


> thats really odd......I would pin it more on CWD than EHD.....hope its neither and the deer has an internal issue itself. Odd.


I agree with scum_frog. I personally would shoot the deer and not let it spread whatever it has to other deer. but I wouldn't waste my tag on it. it would be my little secret.
sherman


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## M R DUCKS (Feb 20, 2010)

What County ?


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## koonzie99 (Apr 25, 2012)

M R DUCKS said:


> What County ?


Carroll county


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## supercanoe (Jun 12, 2006)

No need to panic. Deer can get sick from things other than CWD and EHD. We see a deer every year or two like this around our place. Sometimes they beat whatever it is and look normal the next year, sometimes they disappear.


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## Ted Dressel (Dec 16, 2006)

Looks like cwd


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## beaver (Sep 28, 2010)

I agree with supercanoe. Regardless of what it is, you're asking for trouble with the corn. That's the quickest way to spread a disease in a herd.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

As stated, deer can get other sicknesses other then CWD or EHD.
Pnuemonia for one, is quit common in deer. 
You may want to get ahold of your local Warden, show them these pics and see what they suggest. Since you are seeing this deer regularly, they may give you permission to kill it without using your tag if they feel it would be best and they feel the need to check the deer
Also agree with beaver about the spreading of diseases through corn piles.


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## bobk (Apr 30, 2004)

Well that's not the best way to look going into the winter. Poor little guy. Wish him luck. He's still got his appetite.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

bobk said:


> Well that's not the best way to look going into the winter. Poor little guy. Wish him luck. He's still got his appetite.


yeah I just don't think he'll survive the cold winter. he just don't have enough body fat to keep warm in cold weather.
sherman


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## Carpman (May 18, 2005)

supercanoe said:


> No need to panic. Deer can get sick from things other than CWD and EHD. We see a deer every year or two like this around our place. Sometimes they beat whatever it is and look normal the next year, sometimes they disappear.


If you are seeing a deer or two like this every year, your herd has problems.


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## catfishhunterjames (Mar 29, 2010)

These links can help understand CWD and where it been located 

https://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/portals/wildlife/pdfs/CWD FAQ.pdf

http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/wildlif...-ohio-s-deer-herd-for-chronic-wasting-disease


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## supercanoe (Jun 12, 2006)

Carpman said:


> If you are seeing a deer or two like this every year, your herd has problems.


I don't think so. I just get to watch way more deer than most people. That allows me to see many different types of abnormalities that most people don't ever see among the herd. And kill bigger deer.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

That deer is emaciated and extremely "ribby" when it should be at peak condition. It looks like it's "wasting" away, which is why I agree with the diagnosis of Chronic "Wasting" Disease. For sure, show those pics to your county game warden and see what the ODNR wants to do.


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## CrappieTacos (Jun 22, 2010)

I'd shoot it for 2 reasons:
1. A big part of hunting is conservation and management. That deer needs out of the herd.
2. Put it out of its misery. It's my duty as a sportsman to do so.

Sure it isn't a trophy, sure you would be "wasting" a tag but I, for one, would think very highly of you as a hunter. I'm sure there are plenty more hunters out there that feel the same way. Trophies are hard to come by, doing the right thing is easy


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

And that's part of getting your local GP involved early. While you might be "wasting" a tag getting an infected deer out of the herd, the GP can get you a "replacement" tag so that you can keep hunting if you take a deer out of the herd that the GP considers unfit. 

It pays to keep the lines of communication open!


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

buckeyebowman said:


> And that's part of getting your local GP involved early. While you might be "wasting" a tag getting an infected deer out of the herd, the GP can get you a "replacement" tag so that you can keep hunting if you take a deer out of the herd that the GP considers unfit.
> 
> It pays to keep the lines of communication open!


...and the GW may very well want to examine the deer.
Would be a real shame to not get ODNR involved in case they feel it necessary to examine the deer and doing everything they can do to stop the spread of a possibly very deadly disease for the rest of the herd. 
Letting it walk or Killing it and not saying anything (using tag or not) risks the spread of whatever the deer may have to the rest of the herd. 
Again, I'd show the pics to your GW, explain the situation and go from there.


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## Gotworms (Jan 29, 2015)

Please kill that poor animal. Can't believe yotes have not yet. It's obviously sick end its misery and never say anything about it. I'm not up for breaking laws but there is certainly a time for everything


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## koonzie99 (Apr 25, 2012)

Well guys thanks for all the advice. I had all ready got ahold of the dnr before I started this thread. They was forwarding the pictures to the deer biologists. I have yet to hear anything back from them. I never seen this deer all summer or early fall. It only showed up for 4 days in a row and has been gone ever since. So idk what happened to it. As far a shooting it and not saying anything I don't even wanna take the chance. I got in trouble once and it's not gonna happen aging.


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## beaver (Sep 28, 2010)

Gotworms said:


> Please kill that poor animal. Can't believe yotes have not yet. It's obviously sick end its misery and never say anything about it. I'm not up for breaking laws but there is certainly a time for everything


It's nature man. Sometimes critters get sick. Sometimes they get better, sometimes they die, sometimes they suffer first. It is what it is.


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## Gotworms (Jan 29, 2015)

Beaver you are absolutely right. Mother Nature is what she is good and bad and we probably should not interfere any more than we do already.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Gotworms said:


> Beaver you are absolutely right. Mother Nature is what she is good and bad and we probably should not interfere any more than we do already.


Agree...Unless there's a potential that a deer may have CWD or EHD. Then I'm a firm believer in getting involved.


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## supercanoe (Jun 12, 2006)

It can be an impacted tooth, jaw, intestinal parasites, ticks, late born, a malnourished mother, etc, etc, etc that causes a deer to look like this. I have one of these deer on my place right now. He is 1.5 years old with his first rack. I have got pictures of him almost every day for the past year. He looked just like the picture above last fall, all winter, spring, and halfway through summer. He is now starting to look way better. His weight is coming back on and his coat looks sleek again. My friend has one on his farm this year that did the same thing as well. It looked skinny and rough coated for 6 months, but now she looks better. You can't tell her from the other does now. Being skinny and rough looking doesn't mean it has CWD, and it isn't a death sentence for the deer unless you decide to make it one. I have seen enough of these deer over the years to not worry too much about it.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

Well, I've seen a lot of deer over the years and I've yet to see one that looked like the OP's pic. And if I did, I'd think there was something seriously wrong with it! I don't think I live a charmed life or we have some "magical" deer herd around here, but every deer I've laid eyes on has looked fat, sleek, and in prime condition. 

With what we know about CWD I don't think we can afford to take chances. EHD is a little different deal, but can be just as devastating. Case in point. 

My BIL has permission to hunt a large farm in Washington Co. It's basically bottom land with a creek running through it, with tall timbered ridges on either side. A few years back there was a baking drought! The creek dried up to a few puddles. The biting midges that spread the disease took over, and whacked the crap out the deer herd! 

My BIL has a wall full of trophies from down there, but he wasn't seeing any deer at all. He could see how dry things were, so he decided to walk the entire length of the creek within the farm to look for sign. What he found was deer carcass after carcass! He had heard of EHD, and really read up on it after this experience. It took a long time for the deer herd to recover down there.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

buckeyebowman said:


> Well, I've seen a lot of deer over the years and I've yet to see one that looked like the OP's pic. And if I did, I'd think there was something seriously wrong with it! I don't think I live a charmed life or we have some "magical" deer herd around here, but every deer I've laid eyes on has looked fat, sleek, and in prime condition.
> 
> With what we know about CWD I don't think we can afford to take chances. EHD is a little different deal, but can be just as devastating. Case in point.
> 
> ...


I'm with ya buckeye.
The only living deer Ive ever seen as emaciated as the OP's and still alive was a small buck I happened upon that was bedded down and had part of its lower jaw blown off. The wound was not healed but looked like an older wound. He tried to get up but was too weak. It was a gross sight.
Can't imagine the suffering he had went through.
Obviously, I don't know if it was just a wild shot that caused the wound or someone purposely taking a head shot and missing. But I can tell you that though I've never personally believed in head shots, had I ever had a thought of one, seeing that would have cured that itch.

Another thin deer I saw (not nearly as thin as the OP's) was a deer I saw about this time of year coming home from work. As I passed a friend of mines house, I looked in his side yard and there stood my friend, his wife and a doe.
The doe was standing there and they were petting it. In amazement, I pulled over and walked to where they were standing. Friend started explaining that they saw the deer laying in the yard out in the open. Said the deer would stand up but not move. After awhile of standing, she would start moving her head back and forth from one side to the other almost touching her head to each side of her body then start convulsing and fall down. She would lay there and shake for a minute then lay still. She would then get up and stand there till everything started again.
They had called GW and he was one his way.
As we stood there petting this deer, she soon started into the head turning process and did the full routine. When she finally stood again, her breathing was very labored and she was salivating profusely.
She just stood there not attempting to move.

When the GW showed up, he watched the whole process a couple times.
He explained that it could be anything and that she was most likely running a fever causing her to convulse like she was.
The final result was that he killed her not wanting to risk the possibilty of her having something like as bad as CWD( which is only confirmed by analizing the brain) and spreading it. We loaded her in his truck and he left. Never heard anything else from him.
I will say the GW was grateful for being notified of this deer. He cited several incidents concerning wildlife in which hunters reported strange acting animals had started inspections of those animals in the area and helped ODNR to try and resolve issues. He asked us to check around the area with other known hunters to see if they had seen anything else strange from deer they have encountered in the area.

I'm glad the OP got ahold of the GW. IMO, we can't expect ODNR alone to be on top of possible outbreaks of diseases that can take a whole herd out. They can't be everywhere and need/appreciate our eyes and input to help them.

To those seeing these obviously sick deer all the time in their area(even 1-2 every year or so) maybe a call to ODNR is warranted. From my time spent in the woods, like buckeyebowman, I don't see that as normal.


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## Whaler (Nov 16, 2004)

Blue tongue ?


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Whaler said:


> Blue tongue ?


If this was in response to my post...very possible...but don't know. I will say that they had a bucket of water there and the deer would drink a lot after coming out of the seizures and its tongue didn't look swelled. But she was salivating a lot.


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## bobk (Apr 30, 2004)

supercanoe said:


> It can be an impacted tooth, jaw, intestinal parasites, ticks, late born, a malnourished mother, etc, etc, etc that causes a deer to look like this. I have one of these deer on my place right now. He is 1.5 years old with his first rack. I have got pictures of him almost every day for the past year. He looked just like the picture above last fall, all winter, spring, and halfway through summer. He is now starting to look way better. His weight is coming back on and his coat looks sleek again. My friend has one on his farm this year that did the same thing as well. It looked skinny and rough coated for 6 months, but now she looks better. You can't tell her from the other does now. Being skinny and rough looking doesn't mean it has CWD, and it isn't a death sentence for the deer unless you decide to make it one. I have seen enough of these deer over the years to not worry too much about it.


I have to agree with this. I've watched the same thing with deer on my place over the last 22 years.

Short of killing every deer that doesn't look healthy there's no way to know if they have a disease. We usually don't do well when messing with Mother Nature.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

i'll have to say I'm 65 now and been actively deer hunting since I was 30 yrs old. I've hunted southern and northern Indiana and tn and I've never seen a deer in that shape. I just don't see a deer like that surviving the winter with no body fat to stay warm in cold weather.

I do respect anyone's rights to let the deer live and let mother nature take its course. if it was on my own land then it would already be gone. I just wouldn't take a chance on losing most of my herd for one deer.
sherman


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