Diseased Deer?

[tlk]

Got a deer today but have an issue that none of us around here can figure out: White lesions on one lung, all within and on it. One piece was the size of my two fists together, consistency of pressed cottage cheese.

This lung was hit on the shot and while there is the usual bright blood there is also a lot of milky fluid that is also coming out. Inside of the lung are these white growths/deposits. Is on only in one lung. There is so much of it that it was on the ground where she fell after the shot (thought it was fat and/or bone pieces at first).

Also, in the "sack" that contains the heart there was another sack that was hard like a chicken gizzard. Opened it up and it was full of yellow/brown stuff that was the consistency of half-warm butter. Heart was full of the milky fluid - assume that it got there after the shot.

Doe was extremely light but showed no signs of illness before the shot - was alert and moved well.

Have pics, but I dont know if I should post them or not. Anyone ever see this before? Obviously something is wrong with this deer. I have reported it to the game warden to come look at it.

Thanks.

 

[tlk]

So the warden says throw it away - do not eat (like this was going to happen to begin with).

Says what they are maily looking for around here is CWD. He thinks she had cancer. Kind of sucks that there is no biopsy since I cut my finger on a bone.

I figure I will throw her out next to the fence and put up some snares to get some coyotes that have been getting too "comfortable" around here.

 

[Buffalobob]

Do you know a large animal vet?
That would be the place to start. If you cut yourself and may have introduced the animal blood into your system you should check with a vet to see if it is some contagious disease. The vet will know more about animal diseases than a doctor and once you have the animal diagnosed you can then determine if you should see a doctor.

 

[LostInSpace278]

Never heard of a deer with cancer. I guess it could happen though.

Around we have trouble with TB, waistings disease (spelling), and blue tongue.

I'm heading out tomorrow morning for my first day of deer season and talked to the land owner a few days ago. He said out of 6 hunters, there were only 4 deers seen on 300 acres. The land owner said blue tongue is killing off a lot of deer.

 

[tlk]

Lost, I read about that when I was trying to look up what was going on with this one. Seems to be a pretty bad deal in some parts - bigger than what you would think or are hearing about.

Yeah, I am taking the pics to my cow vet this morning - just to make sure it isn't something like TB.

 

[tlk]

Took the pics to the vet. Says it looks like a standard infection - pasteurella (sp?) - that he sees all the time. Just a typical wound-type infection that went systemic and terminal. Says the extra sack on the heart could have been by hardware disease (ate some wire, etc), and that is how it all started. At any rate it is nothing to worry about, but throw the deer away.

Man, what a lesson about the results of letting an infection go too long.

 

[slymule]

Was she smoking a cigarette when you shot her? Possibly carrying or pushing one of those little carts around with an oxygen tank on it? Sounds like a heavy smoker to me, but then again I'm not a doctor or a vet.