Emaciated Deer

Little background this is in East Texas, Trinity County. No other deer we have seen is this skinny, when trying to look up anything all i get is CWD information.

Im not saying that it isnt CWD, though we have no reported cases in this area, just what could cause a deer to become this emaciated?

Also, would you shoot her or let nature take its course?

Poor thing.

I would give her a mercy kill

I have seen that when they have worn down all their teeth.

Shoot her and have TPDW send the glands in for examination... She looks really bad..

Coyotes got to eat too.

Not gonna be CWD. Tooth or digestive issue.

Stop her misery. Put her down.

Not sure you're going to have to worry about her, could expire before rifle season...

If she does get taken our biologist told us to get her tested.

The bad part of that is, we are on MLDP and didnt get as many antler-less tags so no one is really wanting to use a tag on her.

ETXraider how can you be so sure? not saying your wrong in any way just looking to see how to identify this is it ever happens again.

I would of guess some type of mouth problem too but shes eating corn, and if she can do that she can eat almost anything right?

CWD has symptoms including being listless, not afraid of people, loss of coordination, drooling, excessive drinking of water and weight loss. Droopy ears too.
The GW should come out and put her down if they have any cwd concerns.

I dont have all the answers but I would hope a way is found to kill her.

X2

I would drop her. No sense in letting her suffer.....

I'd make that call, see if the GW will make the mercy kill. If not burn the tag. That poor deer is suffering.

I think too many folks worry about wild animals suffering. There is a coyote, vulture, coon, opposum etc. out there trying to feed itself and its young also. If you want to eat it shoot it, if not let nature take its toll. If you didnt get many doe tags then this is your gift horse, dont look it in the mouth.

Is the front half of her bottom jaw missing?

I zoomed in on the pic and I think you hit the nail on the head.

Just shoot her and be done with it.

in other pics of here i dont see anything missing on her jaw, kind of looks like it in that pic but i got another one where you can see the back of her jaw pretty well and its all there.

Im kind of agreeing with redchevy on this one, all but for the gift horse part, i wont make that mistake again always checked the mouth when you are given a horse

Agreed

She could be very old and put everything into trying to raise her fawn(s) this year. I have seen that in the Hill Country on very old does where they look like that in the fall.

I have seen does at a deer breeder that were recovering from EHD that looked this bad. They made a full recovery.

I have seen does at a deer breeder that were recovering from EHD that looked this bad. They made a full recovery.

I totally disagree. Winter is coming up. She has 0 chance of getting back in shape unless she is wormed and put in a pen and fed alfalfa hay and protein. Why let her starve to death or let some mangy [censored] coyotes drag her down and start eating on her while she is still alive. Shoot her and drag her off in the brush if you are worried about tagging her.

There is a school of thought, that I may, or may not have been associated with, that doesn't state you HAVE to put a tag on her when you drag her into the brush. If something is suffering...

You should always do that which is right

^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^

Likely lack of teeth do to age. She appears to be a very old doe to me.

I agree with the don on this one.

End her life quick, and the coyotes still get to eat. Win/Win

It sure looks like it.

I shot this deer back in 2016-2017 season. For several years she wound up skinny as hell bones poking out all over. She looked bad, near what this one looked like at times. She was very wary and tried several times to kill her but she always seemed to know what was coming and avoided us. That hunt i spotted her at about 400 yards out and climbed down and stalked a little to close the distance and got her.

I have no idea how old she was but she was OLD! We ate her, no issues. Some years she looked as poor as the one pictured but like others have said i think she got drawn down from fawns and then progressively got back into better shape.

I completely agree don k!

The humane thing to do is end her suffering quickly!

Methuselah

8.5+ fo sho

I agree with this. Put her down and drag her off, same as deer that break their legs or their neck in pig traps out of season. Just do it and don't publicize it.

She just needs cream corn and she’ll be fine

My heart would say "put the poor thing out of its misery."

My head would say "as difficult as it is to see her in that state, lay off the trigger. She will provide a meal for a predator/scavenger. Her weak condition may be exactly what a predator needs in order to teach its pups/cubs how to hunt and how to kill. It's part of the natural cycle so don't interfere unless you want to use the carcass yourself. Let nature take it's course."

Personally, if I saw an arrow sticking out of her or a snare around her neck/foot, then I'd shoot her as it was human interference - not nature - that made her weak.

I got myself in trouble explaining the circle of life once specially the part about human interference.