THREE LEGGED HIND.

Was watching this big hind with a bad limp,and a big fawn following closely behind her.Hmm I thort well she has a painfull problem which needs to be sorted with a pill.And I took the fawn as well.
Questions,was she born with a leg short or was it shot off or wire fence slowly cut thru? She's had some painfull years walking around trying to survive.She was a big girl with not a lot of exercise walking been had.
The wounded stump is very well healed like it just came out of surgery 6 months ago.
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Wouldn’t have bothered her in the slightest

They are unbelievably tough


Used to get a lot of reds in the pohangina valley with parts of legs missing

When you think that a big stag last year abused of her weakness….:-)

Ye they are a tough animal alright.Oh well,more meat for the freezer.

yes shot a few with some nasty old injuries including a missing leg in much the same place on leg - one hind I shot high across her back as she bolted shot her a year later with big healed wound across her back -- but fallow bucks carry some nasty wounds seems normal for them

I call them Tripods
Seen a few

Seen a few fallow with missing or mangled legs.They destroy a few fences the little buggers.

Not uncommon in farmed deer, though they often break at the cartilage joint just above that one. They form a sort of a callous that looks like a dog’s pad. It’s really surprising how well deer get around on three legs, it’s no wonder they cover so much ground so quickly if you make a poor shot.

There wouldn't be much fat on that hind, very lean actually.

My first deer was just like that, the back leg on that side had very hard scar tissue that seemed to have formed through compensating for the missing leg. I threw that leg away as it was very hard when trying to cut it with the knife.

Someone told me a missing bottom leg was quite common as they can get their foot stuck down a hole when running down hill and they break off.

Spent a few years working casual in the high country. One of the big deer farms had a hind called Hoppy, obviously 3 legged. Her records put her at 23 yrs old and she came in to yards every year with a new fawn, didnt slow her down in the slightest. Have seen or shot a few tahr with only 3 usable legs as well.

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Shot this wee yearling quite a few years ago now. Didn’t even notice she had a leg missing until we walked up to her.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauer

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Shot this wee yearling quite a few years ago now. Didn’t even notice she had a leg missing until we walked up to her.

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That would've been a stressful start in life.Oocchh.

Shot big fat stag two winters ago.similar to your hind.had one unusable rear leg but the other side was huge to compensate.Attachment 270889

deer have a naturally accruing antibiotic in the blood making them extremely hardy
also, why can you hang them for longer than most other meats

3 leg deer are quite common in spots where they are likely to get tangled in farm fences like up my way for example where 99.9% of the deer use the forest as cover during the day but jump the fence and feed on the farms at night

Yeah.... I've shot several 3 legged deer over the years. 2 Red Stags in the Ruahine's of note were shot about 12 years apart, but the second one only 150yds away from where I shot the other one all those years before.
They're the toughest critters I know of for sustaining horrific injuries and recovering.
This Red Spiker I shot for camp meat in the 2023 Roar, had been shot through the face and was still feeding itself despite the gaping great hole in its jaw. The greenery it was eating stained the hair on its jaw green from the constant dribbling.

Said Spiker looked okay as I walked up to it. Just a bit light on condition
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But when I rolled it over.... :o Holy heck..... Tough buggers alright
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When I first started working on a farm, I found a hind with a rear leg tangled in a wire net fence.
Cut the wire to let her out and off she trotted with a limp.

About 5 years later in that same spot of fence, I shot a hind with three legs, it had this big callous on the end of the stump.
Probably the same one

Sorry Nimrod,but I cant put a LIKE on that poor bastard.The pain he went thru just for a feed.Oocchh.

But I can give you one though, because what you say is 100%

Heres the same whitetaAttachment 270948il I photographed last year, he was a spindly 3 pt. Now an 8pt.3 legs hasn't affected him much except for the wonky antler on his opposite side to the missing leg.