Malform Found Dead

I found this very unusual malfomed buckView attachment 5038 View attachment 5039View attachment 5040last weekend and it has a bit of a story with it.
I moved to a new house a year ago and now have a four acre field with a couple of rough corners and across the road there is about 30 acres of willow planted for bio-fuel, in March last year i started seeing the odd roe on the edges of the willows, i tried stalking them a couple of times with a camera, as the willows were part of a estate with a pheasant shoot on, that never bothered to much about the roe, but the buck was good and i never managed any decent pictures.At this point i saw him in velvet and thought he looked unusual but never got a proper look at him.
Then in May at the far corner of my field i saw a buck chasing another buck, he chased the smaller buck out of the rough patch and across a huge field and only when the smaller buck had made it into a wood about a kilometer away did he give up and started back down the field towards my house, i saw him at about 40m and saw that he had quite a malformed head and as i watched him go across the field, noticed he was a bit lame, obviously accounting for the malformed head.
I had a couple of brief glances of him another couple of times and as my field was left to hay had expected to see him in it early mornings, my intention was to try and call him into my field during the rut and try and shoot him but i i never got round to it.
I then heard that the estate had a stalker on shooting the roe as there had never been much roe on, but after planting the willows they had increased dramatically, i thought there goes my buck, i was hoping to bump into the stalker to see if he had shot anything in that patch of willows more to see what the bucks head was like.
Then last week i had a walk through the willows with the dog and found the skeleton of what must be the buck i had been seeing through the summer.
Done a bit CSI on skeleton and he does'nt look as if hes been clipped and lost, no obvious broken bones from a bullet strike, and has been dead before all the hard weather we had, as there is no signs of demarcation of the bone around the pedicle for casting.
I reckon he must have died around August/September ( also all the hair was summer coat) maybe fighting with another buck, as he didn't seem to old going by his teeth,maybe four or fiveView attachment 5041View attachment 5042
I also found the cause of his lameness and malformed head,both what i think are his lower fore legs have some sort of growths, possibly caused by trauma at some point, or some sort of bone cancer, a guess, as the bone with the larger View attachment 5046growth is hollow with holes in it and areas like pearling on antler. I have seen broken and healed bones before but they have been more solid and smoothView attachment 5043View attachment 5044View attachment 5045This may have been the cause of the bucks death. If any of the vets or others, on hear can give a diagnosis or shed any light on the apperance of the bone it would appreciated.
The head weighs 480 grams,View attachment 5047 i will take it and see if it will be measured, don,t know if it is too malformed, even though i didn,t shoot it i still think it deserves to be cleaned up and put on the wall.

Moose
 
What a cracking malform.
Thats got me perplexed I must admit the only thing i can come up with is that someones took a shot at it with a 22 non expanding bullet like a ordinary long rifle round and the bullets gone straight through the first leg clean then catching the other leg in a line as the injury looks to be in a line.
Others may differ in their view but thats what i thinks happened here obviously such injury to its legs have effected the imbalance and caused the malformity, there certainly dosent appear to be any evidence of it caught in a wire or trap anywhere, Its a strange one I must admit.
Regards
Stu
 
It's an interesting read and good pictures, do we still have a resident vet? I know that it's a little to late to revive it :D but we might get some light thrown on to the injury.
 
Very interesting write up, have you contacted Richard Prior to get it measured? I am also pretty sure he will be able to shed alot of light on the head etc.
 
Stu- I had thought of that as well, but the bone doesn't seem to have broken and even a high velocity would have smashed such a thin bone, and the both bones are the same length and in a straight line, it's usually buckled when it's been left to heal on its own (without the help of the local animal rescue hospital mob :rolleyes:)

Chickenman, i was going to take it to Bushwear, but it is probably worth posting down to Mr Prior, for his opinion.

Cheers

Moose
 
Hi moose, I actually live a couple of miles away from Richard, he I am sure, will be really interested to see the head and any other information you have, I have taken heads to him , either medal or non medal and he can tell you so much about the beast, it really is a pleasure to listen and learn from him. Not only that he loves it when someone take him something unusual. If anyone can shed some light on your head I reckon he would be my first port of call. I can PM you his phone number if you wish.

Pete
 
I would bet my left nut that is the result of a bullet strike into that bone after seeing similar on a freshly boned sambar here.
 
I'd wonder about infection more than a cancer. You can get a combination of healing - the enlarged area and destruction - the holes, in the same area. It's possible that this might have been an old wire injury to both front legs, or the previously mentioned .22 striking both legs, any trauma infact. The lesions look to high to be by the growth plate - which can be an area affected by infection or grwoth abnormalities. Interesting.
 
With all the story you have about the animal, and the head in such good condition (and lovely colour) why not get hold of a good summer cape and have the animal done as a shoulder mount. Then you can do it 'full justice' and have a really unique trophy and cracking story all in one.

Lakey
 
Have been in contact with Richard Prior and the head and leg bones will be post off to him, i will let you know his verdict.

Lakey, good idea, although i have already three shoulder mount roebucks, yeah, another won't do any harm...:p

Moose
 
An update on the buck, on recommendation from Chickenman i sent the head and leg bones off to Richard Prior for his opinion, the reply was, after consulting with a vet friend, was that it appeared to be Hypertrophic Pulmonary Osteoarthropathy, also known as Maries disease, which is a disease process in the lungs causing bone deposition in other parts of the body primarly the lower legs and apparently quite common in horse, dogs, and even humans.
I don't want to spoil it too much as Richard has written a full article about it which will be in the Shooting Times out laying a possible connection with Baillie syndrome and the thickening of the pedicles of those bucks.
If anybody wants anymore info please PM me and i will e-mail them the report.
The head was also measured by Richard and scored 92.45 CIC, although heavy it lacked length and volume.

Moose
 
what a fantastic tale glad you found out the full story and to look it seemed a better head than 92 cic but still nice head
webby
 
Just to give anybody interested, the heads up, the article written about this buck by Richard Prior is in this weeks Shooting Times, haven't seen it myself yet as i've been on holiday will hopefully get a copy tomorrow.

Moose
 
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