doe with tongue hanging out

[brew]

so i posted this question earlier this year and had a few replies but i still have a question about it....a few months back i saw a doe that had it's tongue hanging out of its mouth.  it drooped down a good 4-5 inches outside of her mouth and it was swollen up-she didn't look like anything was wrong just meandering around in a clear cut.  this evening i'm about a mile as the crow flies from where i saw her and i see a deer in the thinned reprod about 40 yards from the road. i put the binos on it and see it is a doe and her tongue is hanging out of her mouth.  her tongue is dangling down about the same length, not swollen and she is just hanging around in the reprod feeding.  i wathced her for a good 5 minutes and she wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere but wanted to see if a buck was around.  has anyone seen this before ?  why would their tongue be hanging out like that.  she didn't appear to have been running as she was content to stay in the immediate area and feed and she wasn't panting or in any sign of distress.  have never seen this before with an undisturbed deer

[Thehowler]

We have a feral cat that was  born in our firewood shed, the wife has been feeding for years. All the other 4 brothers and sisters died within a year of birth. Always walks around with it's tongue hanging out and slobbering all over the place. Pathetic.  The wife hates it that i refere him as retard.

[Bango skank]

This doe is kind of my mascot here at home.  She hangs out all the time and will walk right up to me looking for handouts when im outside doing yardwork.  Seems kind of "special," but her and her fawns do well.  Cant be too dumb to survive and raise fawns each year with all the predators around here.

[NOCK NOCK]

Maybe one of the other deer bet her she couldn't stick her tongue to a metal fence post last winter, guess she lost the bet. 

[Bango skank]

Better pic of the doofus, took it yesterday.

[TeacherMan]

You made me curious so I just started researching on the internet (for what that's worth...). I found a couple references to a swollen tongue and hanging out to Blue Tongue. Often fatal. BUT if it doesn't kill them it messes with their nervous system and the tongue pretty much hangs out the rest of their life. 

[Bango skank]

You made me curious so I just started researching on the internet (for what that's worth...). I found a couple references to a swollen tongue and hanging out to Blue Tongue. Often fatal. BUT if it doesn't kill them it messes with their nervous system and the tongue pretty much hangs out the rest of their life.

 

Interesting, thought blue tongue always killed them.  Well shes been like this since i bought the place, and last summers outbreak didnt get any of the deer at my place, saw no sign of it.  Probably because of the year round moving water here.  Anyway shes the dominant doe, and always has fawns survive, so her nervous system cant be too damaged

[TeacherMan]

You made me curious so I just started researching on the internet (for what that's worth...). I found a couple references to a swollen tongue and hanging out to Blue Tongue. Often fatal. BUT if it doesn't kill them it messes with their nervous system and the tongue pretty much hangs out the rest of their life.

 

Interesting, thought blue tongue always killed them.  Well shes been like this since i bought the place, and last summers outbreak didnt get any of the deer at my place, saw no sign of it.  Probably because of the year round moving water here.  Anyway shes the dominant doe, and always has fawns survive, so her nervous system cant be too damaged

It sounded like it usually does but in the few it doesn't this is a permanent side effect due to nervous system damage.