killingtime 41
Well-Known Member
I have a buck next to my house his left back leg is broken lower down. He is in the field eating. Is it possible he will live or should I put him down.
Can buck live broken back leg
- Thread starter killingtime 41
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I've seen them live several times before.
He might be able to live, but I would guess he couldn't get away from anything. I'd put him down if its legal to do so.
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
I have a doe that always have dawned for the last 4 years with a broke back leg. Almost shot her the first year until I saw a her fawn. She's around again this year. No idea what happened to her no wound. Just a broke leg. He can make it. Could mess with his rack. May not.
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I don't see point to let them suffer. It has to be painful.
Deer are amazing animals and survive under much worse scenarios....if he can stay way from the yotes he'll be fine .
BSK
Well-Known Member
I've seen deer survive the most shocking injuries. let Nature take her course.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
The best death a deer can have is a well placed shot. Do what your heart tells you.
drawforce
Well-Known Member
Got one with 3 legs around here she runs just as fast as the other deer.
Somewhere I have video of one that I knew would be coyote food, but he actually showed back up the following season. Their ability to survive is really pretty incredible.
Had a doe around my place for three years with a broken/deformed right front leg. She had fawns every year.
Don't know what eventually happened to her, but she seemed to make it around just fine.
Don't know what eventually happened to her, but she seemed to make it around just fine.
skipperbrown
Well-Known Member
If you're sure it's broken, I'd put him down. If it heals it all, it will always be painful to weight bear.
My friend killed a
Buck chasing a doe a couple years ago that had a weird non typical rack. He was surprised to see his front leg was missing from just above the joint! He was perfectly healthy other than the deformed head gear!
Buck chasing a doe a couple years ago that had a weird non typical rack. He was surprised to see his front leg was missing from just above the joint! He was perfectly healthy other than the deformed head gear!
MickThompson
Well-Known Member
If it trips your trigger, trip your trigger
BSK
Well-Known Member
Years ago, I shot a 2 1/2 year-old 9-point buck that was chasing a doe. He was hot after her. They were jumping over logs, crashing through brush, etc. Nothing about his movements looked abnormal. Once I was butcher him, I found he had a broken femur. It had been broken for some time and was trying to form a calcium deposit over the break, but the femur was still broken, and you could bend the break back and forth. Digging into the calcium deposit, I found a .22 bullet. That's what broke his leg. I suspect he was shot in squirrel season, as his rack showed signs of being affected by the injury, with the opposite side antler slightly underdeveloped. Yet this buck was going about his daily activity like nothing was wrong. He ran and chased and jumped like any other buck. Deer can survive the most horrific injuries.
45+ years ago in LA ( lower Alabama) when we dog hunted, I shot a buck that that was running wide open ahead of hounds through the pines. Much to my dismay when I walked up to him, his left rear leg was gone at the knee joint and had totally healed over, at least a year or two old injury. His right front leg was hanging on at the knee joint by a couple strips of hide. Had probably damaged or been shot that season. I had NO indication that the buck was running on nubs when I shot him at 40 yards. Yup, running on two good legs with no apparent limp. Imo they are one of Gods most resilient animals in the wild.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
Deer experience pain, no doubt. But not the same as we do. They are hardened by nature from birth and their natural instinct is to not show any pain or deficiency. Otherwise they become coyote food. Their nature is to protect themselves at any cost and survive no matter what. They never feel sorry for themselves. No PTSD in the deer world. If they weren't survivors they would have never made it this long. They deserve our respect.
We had a doe around the house that had a break in the ham. She was very poor and I thought she had cwd as she wouldn't run wen the others did. Yotes got her, found what was left in the powerline cut.
Winchester
Well-Known Member
Absolutely amazing what they can not only recover from, but recover and prosper for years to come.
Between hunting for 45 years and skinning deer at a processor for 20+ of those, I have saw some some truly unbelievable injuries in deer that were killed acting like deer!
Between hunting for 45 years and skinning deer at a processor for 20+ of those, I have saw some some truly unbelievable injuries in deer that were killed acting like deer!
No difference in pain felt. The difference isn't nature. It's culture. Our modern culture was built on the backs of men who cleared forests by hand to fuel the fires required to burn soil until it turned into the metal that we used to construct our modern world. Those men absolutely lived life and worked every day with injuries every bit as horrendous as anything a deer can survive. Ask any of those men what they think of a deer living with a broken leg and the response would be, "hold my beer and watch this!".
BSK
Well-Known Member
I will not argue with the above at all concerning "back then" to "now," when it comes to people.
But animals do experience pain differently than we do because of the mental aspect. The mental aspect of pain in people is overwhelming. Some of the way we "feel" pain is because it gets run through our mental processes, and our ability "imagine." As far as any researcher can tell, animals cannot "imagine" because it takes reasoning ability to imagine anything. As far as we know, no animal has the ability to reason, hence no imagination, hence their felt pain is a purely physical response instead of a physical-mental response as occurs in humans.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Here's the problem Ski. As far as we can tell, you must have a verbal language to be able to reason. You must be able to have a mental conversation using abstract thoughts/words. Animals do not have that.
For fun you should watch some YouTube vids of crows instigating fights between cats for no other apparent reason than entertainment. Not only hilarious, it shows cognitive ability far exceeding what we used to think animals were capable of.
Even more hilarious are the vids of pets freaking out when people have cakes made in their image then cut them. Some animals frantically try protecting the cake while others show apparent empathy, and others yet react as if it were they themselves being harmed. Hard to see that and believe animals don't have imagination or ability to reason.
Even more hilarious are the vids of pets freaking out when people have cakes made in their image then cut them. Some animals frantically try protecting the cake while others show apparent empathy, and others yet react as if it were they themselves being harmed. Hard to see that and believe animals don't have imagination or ability to reason.
killingtime 41
Well-Known Member
I can't imagine they feel
Pain like humans. But it's possible they do but I doubt it. Can you imagine a human getting shot in the shoulder. Loosing lots of blood. And then a week later run around like nothing happened. Not possible why cause we'd be in to much pain even if we survived to even move. Much less run through woods chasing doe's. I'd bet my paycheck they evolved that way. Why so the species could live on. Can you imagine what debilitates humans everyday. Deer go on as if nothing is wrong. It has to come down to the pain factor. Or they would act the same way we do when in pain.
Pain like humans. But it's possible they do but I doubt it. Can you imagine a human getting shot in the shoulder. Loosing lots of blood. And then a week later run around like nothing happened. Not possible why cause we'd be in to much pain even if we survived to even move. Much less run through woods chasing doe's. I'd bet my paycheck they evolved that way. Why so the species could live on. Can you imagine what debilitates humans everyday. Deer go on as if nothing is wrong. It has to come down to the pain factor. Or they would act the same way we do when in pain.
