Good afternoon all
I shot this Roe buck on Saturday evening. He was moving awkwardly along a hedge but I could place exactly why his gait looked awkward. I could see he was small and had an unimpressive and slightly uneven head. I watched for a while and in became clear just how skinny he was.
As you can see from the photos the rear right leg was seriously enlarged. It wasn't soft tissue but felt quite hard and, although the fur was rubbed off, these were no wounds or any signs of damage. I did think arthritis but it seemed to cover too large an area. Anyone got any ideas?
He was the most emaciated buck I've seen. The picture shows just how thin he was. Every vertebra, rib, pelvis etc was barely covered. If he weighed 10kg I'd be amazed. Teeth pretty much gone, no scouring, limited tick burden. Took a quick look inside and nothing looked out of the ordinary. It was actually rather sad seeing an animal in this condition.
CWD had crossed my mind but he was super alert and, other than clearly carrying a deformation impacting on his movement there was nothing else to lead me to think anything neurological was going on. When mentioned to the farmer he did say he'd seen him a few time over the past month or so.
Thanks
FN
I shot this Roe buck on Saturday evening. He was moving awkwardly along a hedge but I could place exactly why his gait looked awkward. I could see he was small and had an unimpressive and slightly uneven head. I watched for a while and in became clear just how skinny he was.
As you can see from the photos the rear right leg was seriously enlarged. It wasn't soft tissue but felt quite hard and, although the fur was rubbed off, these were no wounds or any signs of damage. I did think arthritis but it seemed to cover too large an area. Anyone got any ideas?
He was the most emaciated buck I've seen. The picture shows just how thin he was. Every vertebra, rib, pelvis etc was barely covered. If he weighed 10kg I'd be amazed. Teeth pretty much gone, no scouring, limited tick burden. Took a quick look inside and nothing looked out of the ordinary. It was actually rather sad seeing an animal in this condition.
CWD had crossed my mind but he was super alert and, other than clearly carrying a deformation impacting on his movement there was nothing else to lead me to think anything neurological was going on. When mentioned to the farmer he did say he'd seen him a few time over the past month or so.
Thanks
FN
