3 Legged Deer!!!

[TheDude]

She started showing up on property a few months ago. What do you think?

[hb270deermanager]

She looks healthy to me.I shot one once as a mercy harvest

he was hurting.But she looks healthy does she have fawns

that you know of.Its truly amazing what these animals can

adapt to I shot a doe once that had about 3 inches of arrow

shaft that had grown into her front shoulder.I didn't see any

sign of it when I was watching her before I harvested her.

It wasn't til I started processing her that I found it she showed

no signs of being hurt or handycapped.It had actually healed

around the arrow shaft.

[SteveNY]

Freaky... Wonder if she was born that way or something happened... I'm leaning towards born that way.

[TheDude]

She had 2 Fawns with her the last I saw. Im thinking she was born this way, i have about 100 pics of her from all diff angles, leaning towards birth defect. Strong animals though.

[G-Man]

no not born that way ..either hit by a car or shot off... deer can withstand a lot more than we give em credit for.... had a buck that had his front leg was shot off, healed over and live one more season untill the neighbor shot him..

[DEADDEER1]

POOR thing deer are truly amazing animals with superman strength she obviously is doing well she looks to be a older doe as well...

[Dakota Dog]

She does look good and healthy. I bet she can still run like a deer to. LOL

[HectorBuckBuster]

I remember reading many years ago in the Finger Lakes Times (I think) that people where seeing a kanagroo in Phelps, NY near the Grocery store. Turned out to be a deer that was hoping on its back legs as both front legs where broken.

[biggamefish]

G-man why couldn't she have been born that way?

[132 eight pointer]

I had a young deer in the spring of 2010 laying around in my backyard. One of it's legs was swelled up about 3 times the normal size.I assumed it had been hit by a car. A neighbor saw it and decided she had to walk up to it, that deer took off on 3 legs very fast ,out of my yard and down the road.

Now if I saw the above pictured deer I don't think I could shoot it- it just would bother me ( just my opinion).Cool picture none the less.

[New York Hillbilly]

Shot off and healed over.

[G-Man]

The scapula and humerous are full size it born that way it would be stunted as it would not grow and be fully muscled as it would never have been used.. when muscles arnt used they atrophy...of born that way there would be no shoulder muscle definition..ther is so it most likely was shot off or damaged in a collision...

[RobC]

dang G-man knows his s#$@!.

[New York Hillbilly]

And of the two of those choices, "shot" is the most plausible. Someone looking to fill a DMP seems more reasonable than a car small enough to drive through the legs of a deer and severing off one leg. LOL!

I can't imagine a deer getting hit by something as big as a car, and hard enough to knock half it's leg off, without smashing it's body as well. Yup........shot off.

[Robinson446]

Newbie hunter is this over in Unadilla? Cuz i know there was or is a 3 legged one my dad and his friends from work saw in Unadilla last year.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

it could have been a car acciden't...broken and a compound fracture. I can picture it as a bumper hit. It would have basically died off (rotted off) and healed over. They are amazing creatures and their ability to overcome injury is as well. At a farm I used to hunt there was one that was shot and the front leg was just dangling.....it was after season that we first saw her....it took a couple weeks and she was around with the leg piece missing and it healed to look much like the one in the pic.

G is spot on with his view on the birth defect. Friend took a buck that had a very palmated antler on one side. the other side front leg was either a birth defect or a very old injury. the leg was like skin over bone. It was all there but no functioning for him. It just swung. the shoulder looked like someone had boned out all the meat and put the skin back. There was very little muscle structure there. we couldn't find anything wrong with the bone strusture....just wasn't and muscle to make it operate.