While duck hunting yesterday, my buddy and I waited on the bank of a stock pond when a doe came out of the woods about 75 yards behind us around 3:00 PM.

We had already fired a few shots with our shotgun, and were shocked to see the deer in the area. Well, she was "prancing" around the pasture between the pond and the tree line. I say "prancing" because it was a very unusual jog. Not a fast sprint as if threatened, not a slow walk as if at ease. She actually ran in our direction and looked borderline drunk, having made a very irregular non-linear path towards the pond. She didn't appear to notice us as she came closer, but we notice what looked like a LOT of drool falling out of her mouth as she ran. Then for no reason, she turned and "pranced" towards the fenceline, she hopped the fence and walked to the left, then took off jogging to the right (again for no reason)... still with this excessive amount of "snotty-looking foam/drool" falling out of her mouth every other step.

Any idea what the deal could have been?

Edit: (I'm trying to think of a way to better explain how weird this deer was acting.) She had to have know we were there, as we had fired shots in the last 30 minutes, and were upwind of her. However, she continued to walk towards us sitting there with what appeared to be a drunk, confused type of walk lacking a specific destination.

[This message has been edited by TimParker (edited 1/6/2010 10:58p).]

rabies?

deer are capable of contracting rabies, but would be rare wouldnt it?

http://www.uga.edu/scwds/topic_index/1993/RABIES~1.pdf

My buddy asked me the same questions when we watched her... she only hung around for ~ 2 min as she strolled past us. And, I didn't really pay much attention until she got close enough to see the "snot" coming from her face. It was long streams of it hanging down and she trotted.

Edit: I read the same article before posting, hoping to answer my own question. I just don't know enough about rabies, or if deer in Texas have been reported with it. I haven't heard of any rabies reports in the area in years, but I certainly don't claim to know everyone in the county.


[This message has been edited by TimParker (edited 1/6/2010 11:04p).]

This is the only report I could find with rabies cases.

http://home.kxan.com/news_PDFs/PositiveRabiesCase.pdf

Disease isn't really my specialty, but oh well. I highly doubt it is rabies. In the rare occasion it is seen in deer, it is usually associated with the raccoon variant. We have raccoon variant in Texas, but it's not very prevalent comparatively speaking. As you can see from the article already linked, it is down right rare.

Early stages of one of the hemorrhagic diseases might cause similar symptoms.

I will say. If we were in some other states, after reading those symptoms I'd be going oh crud because my job function would be getting ready to change.

If I have time, I dig around a bit tomorrow.

Thanks Ursus.

And, after reading your comment about the raccoon variant... would it be unusual if there was a freshly dead raccoon on the bank of the same pond? Most likely a coincidence. And, I didn't really stop to look at it because a buzzard had already "opened it up" and pecked the eyes, but the organs were still inside.

Sure it was a doe and not a doe fawn?

I've seen doe fawns do some pretty stupid stuff, and they tend to "hop" and "prance" around like you described when excited and/or scared.

Sounds like blue tongue to me.

That would be a potentially good guess.

I had a similar thing happen at teh red river saturday, we were sighting in and plinking and had probably fired 10 8x57 rounds adn 20 223 rounds and were walking up to check out targets when we spot 2 does galloping towards us from ~400yards out, we stopped and watched and they got to 50yards before they reversed direction... I was unaware that gunfire was a deer attractant.... I'll have to try that again... this was on wide open farmland, we could see + or - 1 mile in the direction they came from.

Up North a few years ago, and on some ranches that bred "genetically superior" deer, there had been a great concern about a spreading of CWD or Chronic Wasting Disease. I may be wrong, but it is the deer "version" of Mad Cow Disease.

Don't know if that would be it, but the cows that had Mad Cow acted a lot like that.

We do a lot of testing for CWD. Knock on wood, so far it hasn't been found in Texas. If it is, it won't be pretty.

CWD is actually what I was alluding to when I made the "I will say. If we were in some other states, after reading those symptoms I'd be going oh crud because my job function would be getting ready to change" comment.

But pulling brainstems is fun ---actually it is pretty cool

[This message has been edited by ursusguy (edited 1/7/2010 10:35p).]

the mouth wouldnt salivate with CWD though would it?

Listlessness, lack of concern for humans, excessive salivation----can all be symptoms of CWD

But to avoid starting any concern, I highly doubt it would be CWD. But is is a good thing to be aware of, and think about, especially if you have an elk breeder nearby.

CWD symptoms are very similar to BSE/Mad Cow symptoms. I dealt with ALOT of BSE stuff at my last job. Spread between animals is a very major concern, but the human risk of contraction is very low, and IMO, very overblown.

I would tend to agree.

EHD most likely:

quote:

---

Clinical signs of EHD:

White-tailed deer develop signs of illness about 7 days after exposure. A constant characteristic of the disease is its sudden onset. Deer initially lose their appetite and fear of man, grow progressively weaker, often salivate excessively, develop a rapid pulse and respiration rate, and fever (affected animals frequent bodies of water to lie in to reduce their body temperature) and finally become unconscious. Hemorrhage and lack of oxygen in the blood results in a blue appearance of the oral mucosa, hence the name 'bluetongue'. Eight to 36 hours following the onset of observable signs, deer pass into a shock-like state, become prostrate and die.

---

Sean, there's a decent chance you are correct.

I was trying to leave some ambiguity.

What about eating fermented fruit? It happens.

You think one of the young bucks was smart enough to ply her with booze and she was just doin' the walk of shame back home?

- Sean

roofie?

Ive got nothing to add about the original post but do about the "never knew gunfire attracted deer" part. Ive found that much of the time they are unaffectedby it. Sometimes even curious. Latest example was we shot a couple od doe the day after Christmas from the truck. I shot the first one off the door and took a body shot because i couldnt get a good rest. She ran about 20 yards the other deer just loked at her like why are you running and why the heck did you fall down. They resumed eating acorns etc. Wepulled forward a few yards and the guy driving got out and shot one off the hood she dropped (neck shot). The others just stood there looking. As we walked up two ran up within 5 yards just looking like wtf. They eventually slowly walked off. They are curious animals. Also i can guarantee the smell
of blood guts and sight of deer parts does not as a rule scare them off either.