Previously Shot Deer - Interesting Pics!

[Bantams]

Imagine my surprise when I was butchering my dad's doe last month, and discovered this deformed femur!  Upon closer inspection I found several bullet fragments but could not figure out why the bone was shaped like this. 



After telling the local large animal vet, he kindly offered to do an x-ray.  You can see that the femur snapped cleanly in half, but since the bones were completely separated, they were unable to fuse.  Instead, scar tissue or connective tissue grew between the broken bones, firmly joining them.  Our vet told me that ruminants (deer, cows, sheep, etc) are remarkably capable of healing broken bones.  Horses, not so much.





I believe this is the same doe I observed several weeks earlier.  If I looked very closely, I could barely tell that she was limping.  She got around just fine.  But I'm sure he did her a favor.
Fortunately there was no sign of infection, so no wasted meat. 

[Widgeondeke]

very cool find. Was the meat in the area good looking?
that is/was a tuff doe

[huntergreg]

love the pics. Interesting also!    animals are tuff!

[JBar]

The buck I shot this year had a messed up back leg just like that. Wish I would have looked at it a little closer now. Amazingly tough critters!

[danderson]

That looks alot like this elk that I discovered a few years ago, it must have lost its battle with survival due to its broken leg, but its will to survive had to be strong.

[NW-GSP]

I found a buckshot pellet in the hide of the doe my girlfriend shot this year, no infection totally healed around it

[Ripper]

That's really cool of your vet to do that.What a sight to see. Thanks for posting.

[ICEMAN]

Bantam, thanks for taking the time to post that, very interesting.

[Hunterman]

This site always has some cool stuff that is shared on here.. Thank man this is cool what the vet. did..

Hunterman(Tony)

[big wood]

that is some cool CSI chit, good investigating. thanks for sharng

[400out]

  amazing what they can take! a elk with antler in his skull    crazy

[Bantams]

Thanks guys! 
Widgeondeke, I cut up the broken leg first, so I didn't get to really compare the two.  But the outer leg muscles seemed about normal, while the inside muscles near the bone were much smaller and there were a bunch of extra blood vessels along the bone.  All the meat was in perfect condition, fortunately. 
The broken leg was two inches shorter than the other one - she certainly was a tough doe!

Kelsey

[shootnrun]

That is very cool!

My brother shot a buck last year that must have been getting into peoples flowers, and/or was terrorized by the neighborhood kids. Birdshot in one hind quarter, and a plethora of .177 pellets and BB's scattered through  miscellaneous places all over. 

[TopOfTheFoodChain]

  Thanks or the post. Amazing what they recover from.

[j_h_nimrod]

I shot a mountain goat years ago that had a fused front wrist (where cannon bone meets the rest of the leg). It had likely happened 3 years previous because the annual rings showed a marked decrease and then increased the next. The skull looked a little skewed as well, like it may have fractured. When it was shot it was in great shape and moving along well. It is amazing enough for a deer, but an animal that lives in the steep cliffs and can still thrive. Animals are amazingly strong and resilient.