Three hoofed deer?

[davidheart]

Shot a doe this morning after I saw her limping. I thought it was suffering from another hunter but sure enough after she went down she only had three hooves and the fourth leg was about 4 inches shorter than the others.

What do you think happened?

Also, I used a 178gr ELD-X from my 308 at 2700fps muzzle at ~120yd if anyone wants to know.

 

[adam32+P]

Is that fresh blood or blood from you on it?

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

If it has partial hoof growth most likely a birth defect. It is amazing how animals can live with even a leg missing.

 

[davidheart]

Is that fresh blood or blood from you on it?

Fresh blood

Edit: Actually I could be wrong. I don't remember. It wasn't a hoof, but it wasn't a straight nub. It was very weird. My guess is either got caught in a trap or birth defect.

 

[lancetkenyon]

Injury is a distinct possibility.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

My buddy shot a deer that looked like it had 3.5 Legs. After skinning you could see that the deer had a fractured leg with a dislocated bone. The bone calcified over with the bones overlapped. We assumed that it was hit by a car and survived what must have been a painful injury.

 

[Muddyboots]

I will bet wire fence injury. I have seen a ton of deer caught in fencing. Some die, some get serious lower leg injuries like this.

 

[fordy]

Gday
I'll 2 nd muddy
Seen the same thing & taken quiet a few
Usually you can tell from a limp or like & we target them as sometimes it's a wounded deer so better to get them out of the way imo but this one I had no idea as she was going like a cut cat with the mob of 6 & extremely surprised once we picked up the ones shot with no difference in body condition between any of them

Sorry about photo quality this was around 25 yrs ago & im not smart enough to scan or whatever can be done these days
Cheers

 

[davidheart]

Oh wow, yep. That leg looks mighty similar fordy.

I should have skinned out the leg and seen what the bone looked like as Varmint recommended.

 

[Muddyboots]

Deer are incredible survivors and stuff they can live thru would leave us in fetal position crying on the ground. We had a 3 legged doe at our house for 4 years even though there is a big yote population. She was "queen" around here and every other deer knew she was in charge. I bet even the yotes left her alone.

 

[arch408]

Years ago, I killed a buck that I had been watching all summer and fall. He had a noticeable limp. I shot him right after he bred a doe and he had no problem running after her before he bred her. He had one front hoof missing. It was broken off or cut off at the first joint above the hoof. He had a big callus on the end of his leg and the rest of his leg was okay. His handicap didn't appear to hinder him. He was fat, in good shape, and good eating.

 

[BillLarson]

same thing happened to me years ago.....3 legged deer with one cutoff at the shoulder.... so clean and well heeled you woulda thought it was done by a surgeon....

 

[Buck-bomb]

That is wild. Wonder if it got caught in some type of bear trap or something that snapped it off