Hoof Rot?

[meathacker]

Ill post up the link on it tonight

[billythekidrock]

It is on now.

[JimmyHoffa]

http://www.king5.com/news/environment/Elk-hoof-disease-threaten-Mount-St-Helens-herd-159258065.html

[wraithen]

Couldn't they set up feeders in the area the herd frequents in the summer and the make it so there's only one way or a few ways to the feeders. Then they could set up the troughs once a week for a month or however they deem to treat it. Seems this wouldn't do anything but draw the elk to a certain spot for a few months. 

[ghosthunter]

Many of these things often come about when animals are hanging out in one place for long periods of time.

Feed stations?

[bobcat]

You guys know that wolves are the solution they will come up with.

[wraithen]

I thought they already said that was the solution. I was offering a temporary stop gap so the wolves wouldn't be hungry when they show up. 

[AKBowman]

Couldn't they set up feeders in the area the herd frequents in the summer and the make it so there's only one way or a few ways to the feeders. Then they could set up the troughs once a week for a month or however they deem to treat it. Seems this wouldn't do anything but draw the elk to a certain spot for a few months. 

Yeah that would make it much easier for the Guys to kill them who have cow rifle permits from Aug-feb. WDFW is probably licking their chops thinking about all the rifle cow elk permits they can give out in 2013 to inoculate the herd of hoof rot. Those elk need to rest, not get pushed 6 months a year.

[wraithen]

Sorry, I was thinking about typing "and keep the area closed off to pretty much everyone" and apparently failed to actually type it. I impress myself sometimes.   

[meathacker]

rest is not going to do anything.  their hoofs are rotting off.  they wont be able to walk and will just die.  they have to be medicated to stop the bacteria. 

Couldn't they set up feeders in the area the herd frequents in the summer and the make it so there's only one way or a few ways to the feeders. Then they could set up the troughs once a week for a month or however they deem to treat it. Seems this wouldn't do anything but draw the elk to a certain spot for a few months. 

Yeah that would make it much easier for the Guys to kill them who have cow rifle permits from Aug-feb. WDFW is probably licking their chops thinking about all the rifle cow elk permits they can give out in 2013 to inoculate the herd of hoof rot. Those elk need to rest, not get pushed 6 months a year.

[meathacker]

You guys know that wolves are the solution they will come up with.

im sure wolves will be there with in the next few years at the rate they are moving west.  It wont take long for them to be in western washington

[nontypical176]

Cool that it made the news.  This state makes me want to puke.  Knew they had a problem, did almost nothing to find an answer, blame funding, and now that they are finally getting around to doing something it has already spread like the plague.  I have been sending letters, making phone calls and asking questions for years, but nobody had any answers and they were doing little to nothing to find them.  Probably gonna cost a whole lot more now.

Heres a genius idea.....Capture an infected elk, put it in an enclosure, study the living elk up close, see if you can cure it with diet or meds.  Compare its bloodwork to a non infected elk or something.  Sounds like we got Veteranarians coming from as far away as Australia, don't you think it would be beneficial to have a living specimen?  I about blew up the state capitol when the biologist told me last year that no studies had ever been done on a living elk with the disease.  Not so much as a blood sample.  Only studies they had done were on dead elk.  Tragic.  Shameful.

It hurts to think of all the stupid crap this state spends money on and yet there has not been enough funding to make any real effort at finding a cure.  Sorry about the rant, but they are all infected where I live and have been for several years now.

[Red Leg]

Does this effect deer hoofs?

[nontypical176]

I have never seen an infected deer.  Not even the deer hanging around 30+ infected elk.

[Ghost Hunter]

I haven't noticed this in the Yale herds I keep an eye on.  Keep my fingers crossed.