Young Buck

Saw this young buck on a regular basis on TC and while hunting Oct-Nov.




I left to go Mule Deer hunting for a couple of weeks and when I returned, I did not see him again till I got this TC pic of him.

Not sure what happened to his rear leg, I thought he got it hung in a fence or feed pen maybe. I did not see any feed pens damaged and nothing on any fences to show it though. I only got a few pics of him for a week or two then nothing till now.
I wanted to see if he had made it. Will be interesting to see how he does in the future years since it appears the leg has healed after a serious break. He is thin but able to jump into a feed pen and eating well. He still does not show up very regular though. I do have food plots so I am hoping he found them and is eating there. I have seen him in person to see how bad the leg is though.

Little swelled up...

Great Pics

does look like he got it wrapped up in a wire fence though... sucks to see but its better than him being dead.

SniperRAB, I killed a buck in the Hill Country that had a front leg injury similar looking to that. The bone/joint was 3-4 times the normal size when it healed up. His antler growth was down that next season, but he rebounded the 2nd year to his biggest set of antlers with an almost normal looking rack.

Nav, my first thought was a feed pen. But none of mine showed any sign of it. Second was barbwire or netwire fence, so I checked all of those and nothing showed any signs off a deer getting a leg hung in the wire. Could have been back on a neighbors land also. So that is what I am thinking happened.

Amazing the rebound they can make, he looks a tad ran down but bet he pops back..

You and I have discussed him before but this old Sucker hung around for years..Fed well and never missed a lick..

That time of trauma is much different than this leg injury. Most do not get normal antler growth after any type of leg injury though.
This is the buck from the Hill Country. You can see his left front leg at the knee joint and above is much larger than the other front leg. He was a main frame 9 point the year before, here a main frame 11 point. I still have that leg joint and it is much different looking than a normal knee joint.

Almost looks like a bite of some sort since the swelling isnt around the joints.

Do yall have many rattlers or porcupines out there?

Small likelihood that the quills wouldnt still be in there if it was a porcupine, but could be possible I guess.

Dont think it could be foot rot huh?

looks like he may have been injured on his hip also..

It's really obvious when it's foot rot. Blow up like a balloon, but it doesn't spread up the leg like his...

I figured the fever would spread up past that crazy

The top buck? I have never seen a rattlesnake in 3 yrs and my neighbors have not ever seen one in 21 yrs that they have owned their place. I know they are here. To far south for porcupines. That injury is more inline with a leg caught in a fence. The swelling will be from the bone growing back together and it was not aligned straight.
The second buck was an injury, more of a wound. I know the deer and what happened after he was killed. He was wounded on a shot the ricocheted off the ground/rock and hit him at that knot in his knee. If I can find that joint bone then I can post a pic of it to show it. It still has fragments of the bullet embedded in it.

No foot root since it does not look like any that I have seen that had foot rot. They looked like the pic that cameron00 posted. I agree the hip looks like it might be injured which usually happens when a buck has been hung up in a fence or feed pen panel.

he will be a great buck if he lives!