Mercy killing

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The Roe Buck season opened for me this past weekend with two clients over two days. Both of them are site members and have stalked with me before.
The weather was as usual bloody horrible, cold wind and nothing growing food wise for the deer, but at least it was dry. The first client shot a reasonable old 6 pointer in heavy velvet out of a group of 5 that appeared very late in the evening on a grass meadow. But prior to this I had seen a doe on the other side of the road which did not look at all well.

The doe was in an awkward place to obtain a reasonable shot, and although we had tried to make use of a nearby ditch to gain some distance the shot was still in excess of 200yds.

The doe was walking very slowly, and with an arched back, scanning her with the binoculars I could make out areas on her back that appeared to devoid of hair, and the caudial patch was not white, but black, a sure indication that she was having some serious problems due to the clotted dung on her behind. I also noticed she was very thin, and could make out the hip bones every now abd again when she turned.

However she spotted us and mad eoff into the nearby wood and we let her be, as it was a sure bet she would not go far in that condition. I intended to stalk her and cull her tomorrow with the other client.

On the arrival of the client (who's name I will not mention as I do not have his authority) I told him that we were going to try and find and stalk this particular deer to end her misery. The weather was slightly better than the day before. Arriving early morning on the area, we stalked from two fields back to see if she was in the area, and I immediatly spotted her again almost in the same place as previous. The wind was not good for us, but after a slight detour around the wood we managed to come down the side with the wind above her, and looking down onto he from a slight bank. The range was less than the previous attempt, but was still some 180yds by my judgement. The client was shooting a 308 sighted in 1.5 inches high at 100yds. The shot was taken and the beast hit hard, which then proceeded to take a few steps into the edge of a nearby blackthorn hedge, where she stood head down. After a few minutes the beast laid down and her head also went down.

I approached her and although just about alive I decided to make sure with a knife. The beast was in a hell of a state, very thin, hair loss, and suffering badly from dioreah.

Not the best start for a client wanting a buck, but a good result none the less.

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Malcolm, did you gralloch & inspect this beast ? I was wondering if it had Yersonosis?? or something else, it would be useful/helpful to other SD site users to know your results, and thoughts

Patrickt
 
Well done Malc a very hard dission to take. We are not vet,s and can never be sure if the deer would ever get right again . That was bang on the money and in my opinion if a deer is not looking or acting 100% then you really do need to think about the deer future welfare.
PS same as Pat what did the checks reveal was she carring kids Lymph nodes swelled etc. What did you do with her.???
 
Although I did inspect it for F/M and any other notifiable disease and used gloves to do so, I did not open her up, and was just glad that we had managed to get onto to her and put her out of her missery. Further more I kept my dog away from the carcase as it looked as though it was infected with lice, although it was not that obvious to see them. There were lots of bald patched on her and she was very very thin. Carcase was put in the pit.
As it was the whole beast was a mess and we had a buck to try and get as well, which we did not achieve. However on the last knockings of light there were 6 Roe on the same field, all doe's except one buck, all looked fine, plus another 3 in the next field all doe's, and a further 4 we bumped walking back to the truck :eek:.

All looked healthy and in good condition.
 
I put a post up and we find yet again people posting that has nothing to do with the post and refering back to another post that has no relevance what so ever to what I have put :evil:

If there is nothing constructive to add to the thread, keep quiet.
 
I think it is important to most stalkers to know what is expected of them should they see a deer that is not in great condition. I had a deer that was limping and while i know its moult time this animal was not moulting in the expected way. Side were rubbed raw and he was not in great condition had he have been a female i think i would have took it out also. I check this ones internals and he was fine i look for external parrasite and foun none. Mange might be anyway i dusted my dog soon as i got home and this one will be in the food chain after being check by a pro.
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Although I did inspect it for F/M and any other notifiable disease and used gloves to do so, I did not open her up, and was just glad that we had managed to get onto to her and put her out of her missery. Further more I kept my dog away from the carcase as it looked as though it was infected with lice, although it was not that obvious to see them. There were lots of bald patched on her and she was very very thin. Carcase was put in the pit.
As it was the whole beast was a mess and we had a buck to try and get as well, which we did not achieve.

Give yourself a pat on the back
 
Begs the question what was it suffering from?
I realise its subjective as the carcass wasnt opened up and samples not taken, but what do you, or some of the vets perhaps, think it was suffering from?
Have you seen any other deer in the area with similar problems?
 
The Roe Buck season opened for me this past weekend with two clients over two days. Both of them are site members and have stalked with me before.
The weather was as usual bloody horrible, cold wind and nothing growing food wise for the deer, but at least it was dry. The first client shot a reasonable old 6 pointer in heavy velvet out of a group of 5 that appeared very late in the evening on a grass meadow. But prior to this I had seen a doe on the other side of the road which did not look at all well.

The doe was in an awkward place to obtain a reasonable shot, and although we had tried to make use of a nearby ditch to gain some distance the shot was still in excess of 200yds.

The doe was walking very slowly, and with an arched back, scanning her with the binoculars I could make out areas on her back that appeared to devoid of hair, and the caudial patch was not white, but black, a sure indication that she was having some serious problems due to the clotted dung on her behind. I also noticed she was very thin, and could make out the hip bones every now abd again when she turned.

However she spotted us and mad eoff into the nearby wood and we let her be, as it was a sure bet she would not go far in that condition. I intended to stalk her and cull her tomorrow with the other client.

On the arrival of the client (who's name I will not mention as I do not have his authority) I told him that we were going to try and find and stalk this particular deer to end her misery. The weather was slightly better than the day before. Arriving early morning on the area, we stalked from two fields back to see if she was in the area, and I immediatly spotted her again almost in the same place as previous. The wind was not good for us, but after a slight detour around the wood we managed to come down the side with the wind above her, and looking down onto he from a slight bank. The range was less than the previous attempt, but was still some 180yds by my judgement. The client was shooting a 308 sighted in 1.5 inches high at 100yds. The shot was taken and the beast hit hard, which then proceeded to take a few steps into the edge of a nearby blackthorn hedge, where she stood head down. After a few minutes the beast laid down and her head also went down.

I approached her and although just about alive I decided to make sure with a knife. The beast was in a hell of a state, very thin, hair loss, and suffering badly from dioreah.

Not the best start for a client wanting a buck, but a good result none the less.

View attachment 26844View attachment 26845

Animal welfare is a priority, no question, that's a given, but this strikes me as quite a challenging situation from the client's point of view.

Speaking for myself, I've only rarely been a "client" and my time and money are precious to me. Now, I would certainly understand my responsibilities if such an unfortunate animal were to "present" by pure chance during my paid for stalk, as I would equally accept that wild animals do not perform "on cue" and blank days will arise from time to time, but I think I might be a bit irked at being "told" at the outset that I had to give up my planned and payed for day to tend to my host's management responsibilities.

So, my question is, how did the client take the news?
 
Malcolm, did you gralloch & inspect this beast ? I was wondering if it had Yersonosis?? or something else, it would be useful/helpful to other SD site users to know your results, and thoughts

Patrickt


Hi Patrick,

I suppose it might have been Yersonosis, which is a form of severe gastro enteritis, but the weight loss and hair loss on the beast would lead me to believe possibly not. But I am not a vet, and not an expert on animal diseases, perhaps Morena (norman) may be able to shed some light on the subject?

All I know is that it needed to be out of its misery and that I did not want Todd my BMH ragging it, and didnt see the need to split it open as there was no way I was going to put it in the foodchain.
 
Animal welfare is a priority, no question, that's a given, but this strikes me as quite a challenging situation from the client's point of view.

Speaking for myself, I've only rarely been a "client" and my time and money are precious to me. Now, I would certainly understand my responsibilities if such an unfortunate animal were to "present" by pure chance during my paid for stalk, as I would equally accept that wild animals do not perform "on cue" and blank days will arise from time to time, but I think I might be a bit irked at being "told" at the outset that I had to give up my planned and payed for day to tend to my host's management responsibilities.

So, my question is, how did the client take the news?

Very well as it happens. I fully expalined the situation to him prior the mornings stalk, as any good guide should, I made it clear it was his choice. He was happy to undertake the job, and infact stated that he was amazed at how I explained what I would like to see happen, which transpired into exactly how I had described it. It was a challenging shot for someone who has not been stalking that long, but he did a fine job, and we went on to stalk for bucks and although we saw plenty of deer late in the evening, we didnt bag one. But thats stalking for you, you cant win them all.

Having been in this game a long time I am up front with all my clients, perhaps thats why this particular client has stalked with me last year, and has already booked several more stalks this summer, and is also wanting to book for the winter.
 
For what its worth i would have done the same thing not opening it up if .Years ago we used to incise lymph nodes then the advise changed and now its not done why open a and risk spreading or getting infected. best thing to handle the carcase as little as possible and bury it.
over thirty years of experiance counts
 
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