Sick deer.

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Ed Cude

Ed Cude

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2021
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madison county
Was driving into town fri the 15 saw a buck stand 10 ft from the road as we slow down pass him he was watched us, his tongue was hanging out eyes look dead . He was just skin and bones , legs shaken ,head low looked to be walking dead
 
Ed Cude said:
Was driving into town fri the 15 saw a buck stand 10 ft from the road as we slow down pass him he was watched us, his tongue was hanging out eyes look dead . He was just skin and bones , legs shaken ,head low looked to be walking dead
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EHD. Not contagious but kills a lot of deer every August and September, usually during very hot and dry late summers.
 
I hope we don't have any issues with ehd 2007 killed so many deer it was crazy. We had one here in maybe 2015 or somewhere around that date. It was minor compared to 2007 but still found lots of dead deer.
 
Heard a report from a coworker this morning about a buck being found last Saturday. Appeared it laid down and died for no apparent reason? Wasnt even stiff yet? Northern middle TN...they reported it to game warden...assuming EHD?
 
DoubleRidge said:
Heard a report from a coworker this morning about a buck being found last Saturday. Appeared it laid down and died for no apparent reason? Wasnt even stiff yet? Northern middle TN...they reported it to game warden...assuming EHD?
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Highly likely. It's that time of year, and we've had a particularly hot and dry July/August.
 
Ski said:
My place usually is mostly immune as there's very little standing water for miles, but im worried this year.
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Mine as well. No standing stagnant water. Just tumbling rock creeks. But I have big swamps adjoining my place and die-offs there can be severe.
 
BSK said:
Mine as well. No standing stagnant water. Just tumbling rock creeks. But I have big swamps adjoining my place and die-offs there can be severe.
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Big swamps would have me worried. That's gnat heaven. At my place the deer who stay over summer primarily drink from my water troughs, no mud to crack. The bucks migrating in from other summer ranges very well could be vulnerable but I'd never know it. My place is deep into the forest but a mile or so out at the end of the hollow is flat river bottom ag country with farm ponds & river bank & remnants of the old erie canal. Some bucks never return and I always attribute it to them dying from hunters but it's likely some die from EHD. I just don't see it because I'm so far removed from where it happens.
 
Ski said:
Big swamps would have me worried. That's gnat heaven. At my place the deer who stay over summer primarily drink from my water troughs, no mud to crack. The bucks migrating in from other summer ranges very well could be vulnerable but I'd never know it. My place is deep into the forest but a mile or so out at the end of the hollow is flat river bottom ag country with farm ponds & river bank & remnants of the old erie canal. Some bucks never return and I always attribute it to them dying from hunters but it's likely some die from EHD. I just don't see it because I'm so far removed from where it happens.
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I check all my creeks in hot dry summers, and worst local die-off I've seen (2007) was only 15% of the population. However, in those adjoining swamps it was BAD!
 
BSK said:
I check all my creeks in hot dry summers, and worst local die-off I've seen (2007) was only 15% of the population. However, in those adjoining swamps it was BAD!
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Fortunately I don't have any running streams within a mile. Drainages flow during rain but are dried up within a few days and is slate or bedrock with no mud. That's one huge reason my water troughs do so well as an attractant, especially during droughts and rut.

A couple years ago was very, very bad in the area of my property. My BIL found numerous dead in the creek (deep cut mud bottom) and pond of his place, and the entire county lost untold numbers. It was devastating. But my place fared pretty darn well. This year so far it's hitting the county next door hard and not terrible at home yet. Hopefully it stays that way and praying frost comes soon.
 
I'm lucky that no deer on my place is more than 150 yards from one of these. And they run no matter how severe the drought is. They've never gone dry.
 

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BSK said:
I'm lucky that no deer on my place is more than 150 yards from one of these. And they run no matter how severe the drought is. They've never gone dry.
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That is pretty right there. I would hunt beside the creek just to hear the water..
 
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BSK said:
I'm lucky that no deer on my place is more than 150 yards from one of these. And they run no matter how severe the drought is. They've never gone dry.
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Where they used to make whiskey. Had 2 old still sites on our year round creeks
 
TNGunsmoke said:
If I did that, I'd have to pee every 5 minutes, lol
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That's a problem! Any stand where I can hear the creeks running tends to stimulate the bladder!

However, we have started placing more stands in these areas once we reopened some of the old log-skidder trails that parallel every creek. Renting an excavator was essential for that, and it worked out well. We opened up about a mile and a half of usable roads along the creeks and positioned a few stands nearby. The trick is getting high enough to stay out of the deep valley swirling thermals, but low enough to still shoot the creeks.
 
I would think EHD would take an otherwise healthy deer. I've seen them dead from EHD but otherwise they look healthy and not emaciated like a death from CWD that might take weeks.
 
Even having plenty of good water to drink the gnats will still hit every mud puddle, some even breed in moving water so that's not a block, Chuck Swann is a peninsula surrounded by Norris lake, in 2007 they lost a pile of deer, you couldn't drive any road there and not smell deer every 100y or less. I would bet we lost 50+% or more that year, a couple of years ago I killed a deer that was shedding his hoof's. Not all deer die from it and the ones who live get some immunity from it, not sure if it dissipates and the cycle starts again or what. It's tough to be a wild animal more so every year.
 
Ski said:
My place usually is mostly immune as there's very little standing water for miles, but im worried this year.
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A buddy showed me the outbreak map for Ohio last night and his place up there is showing in the red. His farmer told them he's finding dead deer. Hope yours up there fares better than theirs has. We are headed to illinois this weekend to put in plots and hope ours is OK. Not seeing the numbers on cams like we normally do.
 
Livin2hunt said:
A buddy showed me the outbreak map for Ohio last night and his place up there is showing in the red. His farmer told them he's finding dead deer. Hope yours up there fares better than theirs has. We are headed to illinois this weekend to put in plots and hope ours is OK. Not seeing the numbers on cams like we normally do.
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I appreciate the well wishes. Same to you. I'm driving up today to have a look around, as well as do a few last minute habitat preps. My brother in Vinton Co, right next to Athens Co is seeing the best mature buck scene he's had in probably 20yrs. Giants. And several of them. But my place In Ross is dead as a doorknob, which is not entirely abnormal for this time of year but given the EHD reports I'm a little nervous. Hopefully the SD cams show me better news than the cell has.
 

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