Large spleen

[DEHL1980]

Shot a young roe buck out of a vineyard last night. Behaviour was normal & didn’t notice anything to cause alarm apart from an unusually large spleen, about the same size of the liver, and on closer inspection, a couple of small nodules/cysts on the surface. Have not seen this before.
Any thoughts?

 

[NickJ]

Splenic cysts? The vets on @Buchan @Selous ?

 

[Selous]

The spleen is an organ of the lymph system and can vary in size somewhat and remain normal but causes of an enlarged spleen include infection, neoplasia (tumour) and congestion (pooling of blood). Providing everything else in the carcass was normal I wouldn’t be too worried but if there was evidence of abnormal bleeding or generalised lymph node enlargement then I would be more cautious with the deer and report it to the APHA/DEFRA. Anthrax is a well recognised cause of splenomegaly but is rare and often associated with abnormal bleeding elsewhere.

 

[DEHL1980]

Thank you for your replies, much appreciated. There were no signs of blood pooling anywhere & everything else I looked at during the gralloch appeared normal. I still have the carcass to skin off so will inspect closely, as well as its head, so I'll have a closer look at the lymph nodes on that.

 

[Buchan]

Anything further after skinning? That could be a sign of a generalised infection or age related changes.
How old was it?