Saw something this past weekend I didn't want to see

[Blizzard Ridge]

While out doing some work on our farms and looking for sheds. I was driving down the road to one of our farms and just south of one of our farms I see what appeared to be a buck that had shed walking through the field. I stopped to look him over and noticed he was walking in a circle. After 15 minutes I noticed he was walking the same circle over and over again except for fading 20 or 30 yards west on each circle he made. It then occurred to me that this deer was obviously sick. I watched him for 45 minutes doing the same thing. He eventually hit the edge of small patch of timber but managed to circle back out to the field edge after a few minutes.

We went on to the farm and hinge cut for a few hours. When we returned to that spot we watched for awhile but the buck never circled back out to the field. He would have eventually hit a fence on the west side and a large creek to the south. Does this sound like CWD or blue tongue to any of you?

I am a little worried about the rest of my herd. I spoke with game warden this morning and am hoping he will get in there to find this deer to run some tests. He was on vacation last weekend so I didn't get a reply from him until today. My guess is eventually this buck laid down or fell down to die. IF he ended up falling off into creek he would never make it back up the bank. Fingers crossed this was an isolated incident or just a lost deer (doubtful).

 

[Bullwinkle]

Curious what state are you in?

This time of year I would guess - but I am far from an expert - CWD would be my biggest concern

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

I am in Illinois. That is my guess too but we haven't seen much if any CWD this far south. I am not liking the looks of things though.

 

[Bullwinkle]

I hope you don't find CWD as well

About 6 years ago I looked at a farm in Pike county. Unreal deer numbers. They had 100 deer a night coming into a bean field. As we were touring the farm with the land owner we came up to a bedded doe. She didn't run at all. We got within 5 yards of her and she looked dazed. Healthy looking otherwise. To this day I always wondered if she had CWD. The land owner said he was going to come back and put her down. He wasn't at all interested in testing her

 

[buckdeer1]

I have seen bucks with brain abscess doing like that and even walking backwards and sitting down or high stepping with their front legs

 

[THE LLC]

Brain abscess would be my bet. Shedding probably did him in.

 

[George]

I have seen bucks with brain abscess doing like that and even walking backwards and sitting down or high stepping with their front legs

Brain abscess would be my bet. Shedding probably did him in.

Yep

G

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

We will find out Saturday. Talked to game warden yesterday and we are going to go look for him and hopefully get to the bottom of what is going on. Been watching a ton of deer lately and walked a lot of ground. Haven't found very many dead ones. A couple of bucks I posted on the shed thread that I believe were shot and not found.

 

[Brutus]

Blizzard, I'm curious, what did you find?

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

Well what I found out is that our state DNR doesn't care about concerned hunters. I called them set a meeting, they didn't show up. I called him again left him a message, he called me back said he would be there the next day and didn't show up again. I can tell you this I checked my property edge about 100 yards from where I lost saw the deer. I did not find him, so I jumped in creek and walked up past where I saw him last and he didn't make it to the creek. I am assuming he died in the little clump of brush I last seen him in, but it is off my property which is why I called DNR to access it with them. So no info. Sorry guys, I am thinking it was an isolated incident as I have not found many dead heads. And the ones I have found were older. Morel season is coming up so I will be in the woods a lot. I am sure if we have an epidemic it will show as I have walked most of the ground for sheds and if something new shows I will know it.

 

[Weasel]

Well what I found out is that our state DNR doesn't care about concerned hunters. I called them set a meeting, they didn't show up. I called him again left him a message, he called me back said he would be there the next day and didn't show up again. I can tell you this I checked my property edge about 100 yards from where I lost saw the deer. I did not find him, so I jumped in creek and walked up past where I saw him last and he didn't make it to the creek. I am assuming he died in the little clump of brush I last seen him in, but it is off my property which is why I called DNR to access it with them. So no info. Sorry guys, I am thinking it was an isolated incident as I have not found many dead heads. And the ones I have found were older. Morel season is coming up so I will be in the woods a lot. I am sure if we have an epidemic it will show as I have walked most of the ground for sheds and if something new shows I will know it.

That's BS that you had to deal with two no-shows. In this day and age of communication, there's never an excuse to not call someone if you can't make a meeting. I'd be madder than a hornet.

 

[boot]

From what Ive seen of CWD they will hang around by structures and not move a great deal in their terminal stages, which is easy to see from their physical conditions, doesn't sound like CWD to me but you never know

 

[UpAbove]

^^I don't know much about CWD but I'm reading about it now.