Belly growth on buck

[JJBat150]

Thoughts on this growth?   

Body lines and coat looks pretty heathy, so not sure if it's slowing him down at all.

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the low-resolution, having issues downloading the high-res photos.

 

[suburbanfarmer]

tumour of some kind

[Skillet]

[wolc123]

One possibility, is that it is a healed wound, that was inflicted by another buck last year.    I witnessed such a wounding, while I was taking a break for lunch, on opening day of gun season last year.  
 

A button buck walked up next to a 4-pointer, that was out feeding in a clover plot, about 150 yards behind my parents dinner table.  The 4-pointer stuck one of its little salad forks into the chest of the button buck, and rolled it up and over its back.  
 

I killed that button buck on last day of the first Holiday ML season (Jan 1 of this year).  The brisket wound, which I had witnessed being inflicted more than a month earlier, was still a little pussy, and I trimmed away most of the meat in that area.  
 

This little buck may or may not have survived the rest of the winter.  If he had, he may have looked very similar to that buck in the op, right about now.  

The area of that growth is almost exactly where the wound occurred on this buck, which leads me to believe that the cause may have been the same.

Edited October 29, 2022 by wolc123