I just took the largest whitetail of my life. I have killed well over 100 in my life. However, I observed something on this one that I have never seen on a whitetail or any other animal.

The deer was shot square through the shoulders. It went down quickly. I was at the deer in less than 1 minute after I shot it.

When I got to it, I noticed extreme bloating. A minute or so later, a large quantity of liquid started coming out the nose. We estimate between 3 and 5 gallons. Also, it was apparent that the buck had lost a lot of weight.

I deemed it best not to eat the meat.

Does anyone have any ideas what could cause this?

Did you notify your Game Dept? Ours likes to know about such things. I have never heard of it, we have CWD, but it is apparent by the way the animal acts and looks. Got a picture of him?

Wow, interesting. What color was the fluid?

I have found "interesting" things when cleaning a deer. I take a good sample and send it to Texas A&M vet department. I am sure FL has a university or Ag extension agent/service that will do tests. Ours charges a nominal fee.

Did you take a smample?

Used to work with the NC Wildlife Resource Commission and I have never heard of such. Please keep us posted if you learn anything. Congratulations on the buck! Where are the pics? God Bless, Louis

Larry,

I am sure the meat is fine. The deer was probably getting up there in years. Check his teeth for signs of how old he may have been. Without seeing the carcass and doing a good post mortem, I would say that the deer had just recently finished eating something with a very high level of fermentable starch such as a large volume of corn. Especially if it was mixed with a source of highly digestible forage like young alfalfa or some other forage that was a very high moisture content and had a large percentage of highly digestible fiber. The corn rapidly stimulates the rumen chamber of the stomach to begin breaking down starch and converting them to highly volatile fatty acids. That process is helped along when the forage part of the stomach contents begins to digest and the bacteria begin producing acetic acid. The corn produces lactic and propionic acid. What you have is a very volatile cocktail of stomach acid that does not stop working simply because the deer is dead. Through stomach function, the deer controls these reactions to its benefit. However, if the deer was old or was otherwise in poor health and the stomach chambers were not working as they should have been, then he could well have been under weight. Hense the saying among farmers that a deer can starve to death in a corn field. We have all seen deer, in tough times, emaciated on a corn only diet.

CWD is a prion infection such as BSE(mad cow disease). And while there are many things that happen to an animal that has a prion replicating its self within the brain, this sounds like the least plausible explination to me. However, with most cases showing a tendency to favor grains over forages and with a greatly increased fluid intake often seen with CWD, it is not out of the question. I would however raise the fact that this deer was in your own words "the largest whitetail of my life" and CWD is a long term condition, I would almost certainly rule out that as the cause of the anomaly that you describe.

Because deer lack the four independent and very specialized stomachs of other ruminates, they seek foods that are far easier to digest. Corn, Acorns, tender vegetative growth lends to rapid digestion and under the right circumstances, can produce copious amounts of froth. If you skinned the deer and found nothing under the hide that looked off to you, then please go ahead and eat the meat. Please keep in mind, the nerves that control the stomach function run from the neck, along a path similar to the wind pipe, and if damaged before the death of the animal, can let the epiglottis and other control features of the upper digestive system, stand open or relax, allowing the deer to empty its stomach contents. Remember that this is something they do all day long, but on a smaller basis of course.

I would say you stumbled across a buck that was worn down from the rut, eating large amounts of energy rich foods to regain some body condition, and had a gut full of that food when you killed him. The bullet may or may not have damaged the stomach nerves and you saw an uncontrolled version of rumenal fermentation. Congratulations on the deer and I am willing to be your local biologist would agree that the meat if fine.

Joe

Thank you all. I will try and post pictures next week. The only pictures I personally have at the moment are on my i phone as I left my camera at home. However my brother and son took quite a few.

The deer grossed 184 7/8. He netted 177 and change.

I would love to tell you all that it was my great skills that resulted in my getting this buck. However, the truth of the matter is that it was blind luck. We jumped him up and I whacked him.

Joe's explanation makes the most sense to me. The deer was old (estimated 6.5). He was worn down by the rut. There was a feeder probably 600 yards from where I shot him.

The liquid was not thick and was a brownish color.

Larry, very interesting happening, and a GREAT deer. I am curious where that boy would rank in the all time deer records of Florida. I would think he is way up there. Did you take him near Orlando?

Just curious--Congrats to you!

No. It was shot in Texas. Sorry I should have said that before.

Larry, a fine buck from wherever he was taken. Just would be pretty sure that is a 'big-un' for real in Fla!

Keep us posted on the final intel.

Congratulations on a fine buck.

PLEASE post a digital.

FN in MT

Cascade? I used to have a client that lived there. The last time I was there was shortly after one of the Freemen tried to cash a $20 million money order at a local bank branch. Of course that didn't get anyone's attention.