Emaciated Doe
 

Has anyone seen a deer this emaciated? The rest of the heard looks to be in good shape. Does anyone know what might cause this?

Could be any number of things. I'm thinking CWD though:

http://www.cwd-info.org/index.php/fu...about.overview

If it was chronic wasting disease, the conservation department would have that whole part of the state locked down. They found a few cases of cwd in northern missouri, which was brought in by deer breeders, and the conservation dept is essentially trying to exterminate deer in that region.

I have seen a few very old deer in really bad shape. It's hard for a deer to eat when they run out of teeth.

That deer is really poor. I would probably run that photo by your game warden and see what he says.

I sent an email to ARGF and asked for their input. The location is in the middle of the state, hope it is not CWD.

If you continue to allow baiting, you'll get it sooner or later. UW Madison has isolated the prion that causes the disease from inside alfalfa, the altered protein actually incorporated into the plant. Unless there's a ban on alfalfa export from infected states--which ain't gonna happen--or an effective ban with education program put into effect, baiting will transmit the disease. All those Cabelas pellets...

We're at 25% of bucks and 10% does infected in S. WI/N. IL. A ban on baiting and a drastic thinning of the herd was having good results but was politically very unpopular. The bait ban is still in effect in the most severely affected areas only. It needs to be region-wide.

UW Madison have isolated prions in the meat, not just brain/spinal cord/ganglia.

Hunting around here is dropping off dramatically, and it was almost a religion.

We're waiting for it to be found in a dairy cow. All hell will break loose then, yah buddy...

Good article on deer diseases, good pics and video links.

Recognize 5 common lethal deer diseases