Cause of death?... Not the ending either of us were hoping for!

BunnyDoom

Well-Known Member
Believe it or not this Buck was alive on Monday (it's now wednesday), albeit in a distressed state (I wasn't there to shoot him unfortunately) - my guess is he had a cist or lesion that got infected and fly-blown. You can see from the pics that three days later there are fully formed maggots present in large numbers. He looked fine when I saw him 10 days ago (albeit he was living in a poly tunnel), so it's possible he was hit by a car I guess - any ideas guys?

There is what looks like fungus on the remaining antler.

He was found by the farmer in the bush in front of his house. One antler was missing and the other came off when I tried moving him. There were maggots in the pedicle.

There is what I thought was a pricket knocking around the same area... though I'm now wondering if it might in fact be a murder buck. It supposedly went for the land owners spaniel on Saturday night!

Real shame he had to suffer. I spent the last 3 nights in a high seat waiting for him - I suspect he was probably in the bush from Monday onwards.

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WOW! poor beast, I couldn't tell from pure lack of veterinary knowledge, but my immediate thought was the bubonic plague! (joking).

Morena would probably have a very well educated guess on this.
 
What you describe as fungus are actually fly eggs.

Looks like he sustained trauma to the head and possibly the rear end. A road traffic accident a very strong possibility. Could also have been injuries sustained from fighting. The fly strike could have happened post mortem. Depending on the species and ambient temperature some eggs will hatch in as little as 24 hours. There is a whole science dedicated to this.

Did you open him up? That would likely have given you cause of death.

Poor bugger.
 
Nope didn't open him up as he was clearly manky and stank. He's fox food at the moment i'm guessing as he's still in the field the land owner put him in.

It occurred to me that they're currently making hay bails in the fields surrounding my shoot - suppose its possible he was laying up and got clipped... or perhaps something on the road. Massive shame whatever happened.
 
Thanks Digger - that does look like that's it, and the head-shaking is exactly what the farmer described.

Poor sod, the annoying thing is when I first went there I had no gun as was being shown around - the deer itself was laid up in a poly tunnel. He was about 60yds away and all I could see was a decent set of antlers and him looking at us. If I'd had my bino's on me I probably would have seen something was wrong with him. In which case I would have sacked off the rest of the day at work and gotten my rifle to finish him off.
 
There is a difference poly tunnel buck had quite obvious injuries or wounds to the side and arse area. One in video looked more diseased with what looks like puss on the neck. I reckon that he had run in with the bailer or mower.
 
Im not sure about this but i could be blow fly, they will attack one sheep at a time out of a flock until it dies then attack another and so on, they also will hit rabbits, not sure about deer, but it looks very simlar also it has been a bad year for it being damp.
 
Im not sure about this but i could be blow fly, they will attack one sheep at a time out of a flock until it dies then attack another and so on, they also will hit rabbits, not sure about deer, but it looks very simlar also it has been a bad year for it being damp.

It is blowfly - yes. Doesn't quite work like that...........
 
Was just discussing this with a mate, and mentioned that the land had a caravan site on 2 sides... he suggested either machinery or illegal coursing as he'd seen a few deer in his time that had been had a go at by dogs, then gotten away and succumbed to this sort of death. Though he did add that usually you can see the dog bites in these cases.
 
looks like it has been killed by flies to me.

Happens to lambs sometimes if you dont spot it early enough.

A small wound or dirty coat gets laid on by flies then the maggots slowly pick away until it dies of septicaemia.
 
head shaking (or any body part for that matter) is the standard response to parasitic infestation.

An ongoing fly strike will often manifest itself elsewhere in the body just because of the proximity to the larvae and flies. they will work their way around the body until the either find somewhere else to feed or drop off.

could be any number of reasons as to the initial fly strike, once they took hold it wasnt able to fight off the constant attack.
the opening of more and more wounds and the subsequent infection and necrosis most possibly led to blood poisoning/septicaemia
 
This is what happened to your buck mate:

Reebok geïnfecteerd met vliegenmaden - YouTube


An injury was sustained, possibly an RTA which may explain the broken antler, which subsequently became fly blown:cry:

I'd guess he was 2-3 years old by his teeth, but that's a guess.

That just makes you sick watching it - whats the smell like? Definately case for putting it out of its misery. But I suppose its nature at work and if there were the natural predators about he would nt last long.
 
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