You never like to see an animal injured and especially a youngster but that's what I saw early this morning. Around 7:45 am I had a doe run in to corned road from west; about 30 seconds later I saw a yearling coming in behind her. After eating for 20 seconds or so, mama exited under the fence southward. As the yearling approached out of the brush, I noticed it limping. Yearling took some bites of corn then went through fence limping to catch mama. I was able to tell through binos that yearlings back right foot and ankle were covered in bright red, fresh looking blood and the foot appeared hanging some or broken. My guess is that the yearling hooked its upper foot area going through fencing late last night or early this morning and ripped it pretty good, maybe even breaking that foot to get loose. Considering the freshness of the injury, the yearling seemed in good spirits and was feeding some. My real concern now would be yotes. Has anyone else ever seen something similar and how do you think things will turn out for the youngster?

It's amazing what deer can survive. Had a Doe here years ago with a broken front leg. She fed and hobbled around all season, she had a young fawn. The following year, her leg healed but it was bent the wrong way. She lived here and had several fawns before we decided to take her out. Once her leg healed, she didn't even have a limp, but she sure looked funny walking.

It'll be up to the luck of the deer. It can survive the wound, just have to be lucky enough the critters don't get it.

Lots of gut piles and dead hogs around. Coyote might not want to work that hard.

Agree with Stompy.

Tough to watch. Mother Nature can be VERY Cruel

Was it a yearling or a fawn? Yearling will have a better chance of survival than a fawn.

X2

Yearling, 6-10 months I'd guess, not a fawn.

Yearlings are last years fawns. Any deer less than a year old is a fawn.

That is correct sir.

Agreed. That darn movie doing us no favors here. Yearlings are a 'year past', meaning they've made their first birthday. So this time of year, they are 15-18 months old. Does will be breeding for the first time, and bucks will have their first set of antlers.

Nature isn't cruel. Nature is honest. Except for humans.

"Stuff" happens

If they are getting around and eating I think they have a good shot. We had a pretty nice 9 several years ago show up with a busted front leg we were undecided whether to shoot him and save him pain or leave it to a higher power. in the end we let him go and by the next year he was running around fine.

This little guy got fence caught last winter and managed to get out. I decided to not interfere and just hope that he would live. With the coyote volume here I didn’t give him much of a chance. He is getting around nicely after a year and is healthy looking.