Skinny Roe buck

jack

Well-Known Member
Out tonight and had a better look at a skinny 4 pointer Roe buck, it was with two does which look about fit to pop.
The one doe it was near was much bigger than the buck.
Question is do I leave it to grow over the summer or take it now.
Hard winter or unhealthy?
 
I would think take it now if the does are about to drop young then they are in good condition dispite winter so why is buck so poor? it sounds like ideal cull beast.
 
If you think he's in a bad way then maybe best take him, but if he is moving around fine, eating and acting normal then I'd just leave him alone and let nature take its course.
 
Thanks for your comments.
It seems to move ok, no obvious signs of ill health just skinny, but its a good point, if the does are large why is this one poor?
 
Could be any number of things. An old school very experienced stalker once told me that the month with the most deer fatalities is April. This is due to the new growth coming through and subsequently thin/weak deer overindulging and picking up bActerial grass type infections from the new growth. If he was thin over winter and picked up a bug then that would explain his condition. Just a thought. Sure there are a gizillion possibilities.
 
all valid points and without seeing it how can one tell, but, are you sure its skinny and not just looking a bit ragged with changing coat.
i shot a buck in velvet a week ago which i thought looked pretty awful condition wise.
turned out to 16.5 kgm in the larder and bloody good eating.

dependant on the land i.e if your neighbours are rambo etc i would leave him for a month, if he still is not starting to show promise then, well you know what happens next lol.

p.s mums about to cast him anyway so nature will force him to start to stock up soon.

good luck f,
 
If it was me, I would take him now, could be in poor condition for any number of reasons, I shot a Doe yearling that was 8Kg (If I remember correctly), a week earlier within 100m of that, I shot a Doe and a Doe yearling, the yearling was 14Kg, the 8Kg was clearly struggling, I suspect orphaned via RTA or Poaching, fit for dog food only.

TJ
 
A client off this site took an underweight yearling buck off my lease last week. This past winter has been a hard one, even for this far south, but this is the first buck I have seen underweight this year so far. I was also present when another member off this site took a very small doe, which was without its mother earlier in the year. It was tiny, but was perfectly ok.

I general in my opinion if they are small and skinny and not carrying the weight they will secumb to parasites and disease far more easily and should therefore be culled.
 
Interesting what you say malc regarding under condition animals being more susceptible to parasites.. Ive shot 3 bucks so far in the last month and all have had infestations of lice (they look like thunderbugs on inner thighs). One deer had only a few, but the other two were fairly heavy. I havent seen this before and wondered if it was down to the weather we have had or the deer?
 
I too took a real skinny buck last weekend, his coat was really coming out mind, but he was literally crawling in fleas and ticks. I skinned him there and then instead of infesting the back of the pickup. I'd not seem one in this state before, poor wee chap. Another one we shot the next morning was in a much better condition, with a normal amount of ticks for this time of year.
 
I would suspect that somewhere a paper has been written on this :-| but all I will add is that in general if deer and in particular Roe at the moment are underweight they nearly always seem to attract an over burden of ticks.

I would assume their immune system is weakened by the infestation and once they are past a certain level there is not a great deal of hope in their regaining their weight and strength.

One would also assume that due to the harsh winter we have had that tick numbers might have reduced, but there again that seems not to be the case at present.

Out again this weekend with another chap off the site so will see what we find. Weather is going to be stormy and humid by the looks so I would doubt that the deer will move much and if they do I suspect they will follow the pattern of recent weeks and only move for 20 to 30 minutes in the morning and evening. The cover is certainly shooting up and as the deer are yet to come into their full summer coat they are not quite so easy to spot. Still 2 bucks last week and two previous in 5 outings is not bad.
 
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