Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Elk Hunting => Topic started by: Eli346 on January 07, 2012, 07:45:39 PM
-
Just curious about the hoof rot situation in Western Washington. It seems to be showing up in a lot of elk. We took 2 in Winston Creek today and they both had it on one hoof. We saw a few others in the herd that appeared to be gimping a bit too. I didn't realize it was that prevalent and for some reason thought it was pretty localized to the Boistfort area. The meat looks good and I believe it will be but it's a bummer to see them suffer like that. I hope it's just cyclical and will eventually go away but I have a feeling it's not. Any others run into any problems with their elk?
-
The bacteria can live in the soil without a host for 7 days and it is highly contageous. Once one gets it, it's only a matter of time before more become infected.
-
Anyone have pics of the hoof rot? I have never seen it.
-
A few pictures here:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01124/wdfw01124.pdf
-
Thanks. Now i wish i didn't ask. That is sad.
-
the bull i killed this year in teh coweeman had hoof rot in one of his hind hooves. that hind quarter and backstrap was substantially smaller on that side than the healthy side. meat is fine though.
-
we have been hunting the Winston for a long time and had never come across it until this year, I cant even imagine how painful it must be. I fatally shot this elk and it just walked away.
The Radsav wife
-
We took 2 cows from the winston late hunt and 1 cow had hoof rot. While we were skinning the cow that had hoof rot we noticed that it didnt have any back strap at all. Has anyone else seen this before?
-
I cant find the pic but the cow I took in the winston area last year had it. hooves looked like the Jesters shoes. long and they crossed over at the tips. meat tastes great and no sign of hoof rot in me :chuckle:
-
My Grandpa killed a cow in the Margaret this year that had it. One of the hind hooves was like what kenzmad described. All the meat and size of cuts was normal.
-
My cow that I got on Tuesday for the late hunt had it alittle bit in her front hoof. But we let the meat hang and cut it all up and even tasted some already steaks,hamburger and breakfast sausage and it all taste just fine....
-
I know of two that had hoof rot in the Coweemen unit :(
-
My bull out of Winston Creek this year had hoof rot and didn't see any difference in the meat. It taste fine and I'm ready to go back. Is it November yet?
-
I shot a 5 point in 2009 in the Fall River unit with it. Pretty nasty looking but the meat from the knee up was just fine. The way I see it, I probably put that old bull out of his misery, it can not be any fun walking around like that :twocents:
-
Nasty :yeah:
-
my buddy shot a cow this year in the winston that had it.
-
Happened to a guy I know with a cow and F & G gave him another tag.
-
The Adna area has it real bad. I've seen small bands in the summer with half the cows limping along. It's become the same problem for lower elevation elk as hair loss has for black tailed deer.
-
I shot a young 4x4 in the Winston unit with no sign it this year (2011). One of the first things I looked at after i knew he was dead.
-
My 2yr winston cow did not show any signs...
-
Yeah sometimes I think it depends on were the elk are living and how long they have lived in that area IF THEY DON'T MIGRATE..... My cow was in a swampy marsh area. If you stepped in the wrong place you would probably sink in the mud and water. But I guess you never know either. Like I said an a above replay is that my elk had it alittle bit but not that bad. ALL of the meat is perfect. So that's a plus!!
-
Why is it that we're seeing so much of it from just those few GMU's? :dunno: Can't be any worse than out around the Hoh River area if ya wanna talk swamp. Anyone getting them with the rot from the Forks/Hoh area? Or even down around the Raymond area, that place is really a swamp too.
-
Maybe thats why the Game Department gave out so many Cow Tags (200) just for a late hunt!!
-
Why is it that we're seeing so much of it from just those few GMU's? :dunno: Can't be any worse than out around the Hoh River area if ya wanna talk swamp. Anyone getting them with the rot from the Forks/Hoh area? Or even down around the Raymond area, that place is really a swamp too.
It's in the willapa hills and fall river units. Haven't seen it as far west as Menlo yet. So not quite to Raymond but close.
-
my late winston cow had it this year just one hoof and the meat was fine
-
The Herd near my house early this year had between 90 and 100% hoof rot, up from last year at about 50%. I actually think some of the animals are healing??Kinda. I had seen the raghorn I shot this year limping on many occasions. He wasn't doing too bad by hunting season tho and I lucked out and he is in my freezer. I noticed that all his hooves looked....Normal....but my buddy (a butcher) was boning him out and says"What the hells that. Theres a bone growth around his knee and then another on the hip." It was like the lower leg bone was trying to grow over the knee cap. Seems like the hoof rot caused permanent damage..
One big cow I had been watching had the biggest most gnarly hoof ever. Had to be 18" long. Big cow too, she looked miserable. Couple days go by she had just been lying and eating in a little area, but then she walks buy the house and her hoof is gone....she still looked miserable. My buddy shot a rag horn in kalama that had a stub hoof also.
Now I don't know why and the elk haven't been around since rifle season, but sure seems to me that the number of elk around these parts had close to 100% hoof rot early this year, but by the time hunting season got here that number was closer to 60% or less its hard to be sure...its rare they walk close enough to see hoofs, or all together at one time....But limping is obvious. I have been watching these elk for 4years now, they got so bad at one point I thought they all might die, but now they are better. The Cows are still having babies so its not always fatal but certainly sucks.
-
I see elk with hoof rot all over now. Once you have seen a herd limping like that, its hard not to look for it in other herds. Sad.
-
It has everything to do with there diet, Owning dairy cow's I see it all the time.It's to much protein or somthing along them lines. The cure is culling or thrimming the feet. Don't think trimming is going to happen.There's nothing wrong with the meat..
-
My cow from the margaret had it on one of its back feet. stinky stuff! She didnt seem to be effected by it though.
-
The game department say's (Don't laugh, I know better then to trust them) it's a Selenium and copper deficiency... :dunno: I don't know why they all the sudden ran out of it :dunno:
-
What is the farthest east anyone has seen hoof rot in WA state? The reason I ask is that a few years back during early archery season I walked up on a big bull that jumped off the trail and stood there looking at me. I checked him out real good and realized that his right front lower leg was messed up. I thought it was maybe shot off but it was more like a club at the end of his lower leg but the leg did seem shorter because he would lean down and put minimal weight on it when he stood still. Weird stuff.
-
The game department say's (Don't laugh, I know better then to trust them) it's a Selenium and copper deficiency... I don't know why they all the sudden ran out of it
Hoof rot transfers by bacteria on the ground. The bacteria gets in cuts and crevices on an elks hoof and spreads.
Selenium promotes hoof growth and quaility, which helps stop the spread of hoof rot. It also promotes anti-bodies and healing. So while a selenium deficiency is not the cause of hoof rot, it does help to keep elk from getting it if they have selenium available as it promotes healthy hooves and so the bacteria won't have an easy time getting in.
Note: Too much selenium is a bad thing also, and is toxic.
If hoof rot worries you, you can always put out, Mineralized Salt with Selenium Blocks when you put salt out for deer and elk. It won't prevent hoof rot but it will keep the herd healthier and make it harder for hoof rot to transfer between animals.
-
I put out 2 selenium blocks with copper, the elk never touch them, deer do though. It reminds me of dog toe nails. If my dogs spend a long period of time doing nothing their nails grow long and should be clipped, but if they stay active the toe nails are worn down short. Many of the hoof rot elk around here have great big long deformed hoofs (usually just one leg), or a stub that doesn't even resemble a hoof. Another note, the hoof rotted bulls almost always have some goofy horns on atleast one side.
Culling the herd doesn't seem like a logical approach to fixing the problem, some elk will always slip through the cracks and infect others. The battleground unit became either sex before I had ever even seen or heard of hoof rot in the area and now its everywhere. I think we need to get more wolves, should fix everything........Just Kidding. Sure is odd that nowadays its a big problem, but it wasn't this bad before...kinda makes you wonder what changed. I guarantee you that if everyone else seen what I have, (30 elk limping, skinny and miserable all at once, bulls calves and cows), more would be getting done. It just doesn't make the news, like an orphaned wolf pup.
-
Ive seen that type of devastation over around Winlock and Vader.
-
my wifes toutle cow had it. taste like anyother elk we have eaten. :twocents:
-
Were I hunt its pretty bad I've noticed a couple things the ones with it are down low it could be just cause they come down during winter and dont want to go back up and almost all of them have it on the left hind and I spend alot of time up there never seen a front infected kinda weird I've seen nice bulls try to keep up with the herd and fall over This year seen a mature cow with a calf that still had spots on it during september trying to keep up with her calf and was struggling so bad her calf was ahead of her and kept mewing to her catch up it made me want to hang up the bow or just start hunting out of state I wish the state would do more than say its a nutrient problem im no biologist though
-
Why is it only one hoof that gets affected? It doesn't seem like a bacteria would be selective? :dunno:
-
Why is it only one hoof that gets affected? It doesn't seem like a bacteria would be selective? :dunno:
It is not only in one hoof. mine had it on all 4.
-
My buddy's Coweeman cow had it on 3 hoof's..... One very bad....... He said actually jumped the herd.... Saw one was struggling to keep up..... Ran after them..... And was able to get withing 150 yards of her while the rest of the herd was long gone...... He thought somebody had wounded it..... Just the hooves rotting off slowed her down..... A lot.....
-
I noticed that in the herd near my place its usually only 1 hoof, but not always. From my observation it seems like the first hoof to get infected is the leg they start limping on and my "guess" is thats why that hoof gets so overgrown and disfigured. We seen a cow that was harvested walking on a rear hoof that was stubbed off (almost no hoof at all) but the other rear leg wasn't hardly being used and had a big ugly hoof on that side. Saw a yearling this fall that had hoof rot on a front leg, its usually infects a rear leg though, but I don't know why, maybe its just easier for them to limp on a back leg. The WDFW sent a biologist to look at the herd last year, but they didn't do anything other than try to count how many were limping. I wish there was something I could do to help, especially when its a herd I hunt regularly. They should be healthy happy elk, but thats not the case.
Its hard to watch a herd that is infected this bad.....trueth is I here guys that look for an elk that isn't limping before pulling the trigger and I don't blaim them for it. People are just trying to fill the freezer harvesting a cow and all the info. I've found about hoof rot came off the internet, and not everyone uses the net or understands what hoof rot is. My rag horn was a limper and I guarantee you that hoof rot was the last thing I was worried about....He filled my freezer just right and is delicious. My first branch bull years ago was limping, but it wasn't hoof rot, it was a broadhead stuck in the hip and over a quarter of the elk was gain green rot, and I lost a lot of meat. Around the house here limpers are from hoof rot and several people I know have harvested these animals with no meat problems at all other than maybe being a little skinny on one side.
-
Question for the people that have cattle with hoof rot. What do you guys do when cows/goats whatever get hoof rot? How come we don't see a bunch of limping cattle in the areas where the elk are limping? Are elk just more susseptable to it? Deer around here don't have it, but elk are having all sorts of issues with it....Kinda like the mange the deer around here had for a while (don't see it much anymore), but I never seen an elk one with mange like the deer had. Sure odd that its such a growing problem in the last several years, but I never seen it once up til about 5 years ago. Maybe it just took a while for the disease to figure out a way to start infecting elk.
-
Why is it that we're seeing so much of it from just those few GMU's? :dunno: Can't be any worse than out around the Hoh River area if ya wanna talk swamp. Anyone getting them with the rot from the Forks/Hoh area? Or even down around the Raymond area, that place is really a swamp too.
It's in the willapa hills and fall river units. Haven't seen it as far west as Menlo yet. So not quite to Raymond but close.
Maybe the eastern half of 506 but I've seen a couple hundred elk in the western most part of 506 over the last few seasons and never noticed one limping. Hopefully it will stay that way but doesnt sound like it. I have definitely noticed a reduced number of elk in the area I hunt from 4 years ago. 200 cow tags a year for 3 years in a row have done a number on the population overall.
-
Why is it that we're seeing so much of it from just those few GMU's? :dunno: Can't be any worse than out around the Hoh River area if ya wanna talk swamp. Anyone getting them with the rot from the Forks/Hoh area? Or even down around the Raymond area, that place is really a swamp too.
It's in the willapa hills and fall river units. Haven't seen it as far west as Menlo yet. So not quite to Raymond but close.
Maybe the eastern half of 506 but I've seen a couple hundred elk in the western most part of 506 over the last few seasons and never noticed one limping. Hopefully it will stay that way but doesnt sound like it. I have definitely noticed a reduced number of elk in the area I hunt from 4 years ago. 200 cow tags a year for 3 years in a row have done a number on the population overall.
I have seen it at the west end of 506. Just not as much.
-
Cattle get treated for it. If I had a cow tag and saw a limper, I'd opt to take one of those to ease the suffering and improve herd health. I might pick one that isn't as bad but take a limper if I had time to think about it.
-
Just got a good look at the herd that comes into the area near my house (battleground unit), which isn't very often and not since before rifle season....30 plus head and thought we seen one that might not have been limping. I was hoping at some point the hoof rot would start to ease up a bit, but thats not the case. 4 spikes and a raghorn in the bunch, all had a goofy, messed up horn on at least one side. Got a good look at the hooves of a couple cows holding up a hind leg, way overgrown. It's just plain wierd how every one of them is favoring one hind leg, some noticeably skinnier on that side. Not what I wanted to see for Valentines. Neighbors let their dogs out and of course they chased the elk away....My dogs had been hanging around the herd all day without a care. All of it is irritating and sad. I'll just keep wishing the next time they come back that none will be limping. Makes me want to puke.
On another note, all the bulls still had their horns and 2 spikes were fighting for a while...LIVE ACTION....raining too hard to get any good pictures though.
-
After watching the elk for over a week, limping around my place, I decided to contact the WDFW. I sent a email to one of the peole listed at the bottom of one of the studies that were done and posted on the WDFW site (kristin Mansfield). Asked lots of questions, got few answers.
Basicly it sounds to me like the WDFW is hoping someone else has an answer, they have been in touch with Veterinarians all over the world, sounds like the university of washington and Washington state university have toyed with it a little. There has never, ever, been a study done on a live elk that has been tagged/collared or anything close to being captive. So basicly they haven't ever studied an elk that has recovered from hoof rot or tried to cure a live elk of the disease....Pretty impressive huh?. Thats how little effort that has been put into it. Doesn't sound like Mrs. Mansfield is very happy with their efforts either.
Copper/seliinium deficiencies have been far lower in healthy elk, so I doubt thats the problem. The parasites on the hooves are pretty normal for an infected area that gets smashed on the ground all day. They honestly still don't have a clue. Not enough she said, to do any real testing. I think the only way anything is going to get done is.......OCCUPY THE WDFW. The government in this state sucks.
-
I bet some of the biologists feel the reason for hoof rot is a lack of wolves. :o
-
Question for the people that have cattle with hoof rot. What do you guys do when cows/goats whatever get hoof rot? How come we don't see a bunch of limping cattle in the areas where the elk are limping? Are elk just more susceptible to it? Deer around here don't have it, but elk are having all sorts of issues with it....Kinda like the mange the deer around here had for a while (don't see it much anymore), but I never seen an elk one with mange like the deer had. Sure odd that its such a growing problem in the last several years, but I never seen it once up til about 5 years ago. Maybe it just took a while for the disease to figure out a way to start infecting elk.
First off,there's two different thing's your looking at in the pics. The feet that are growing like a bad toe nail is from eating to much protein in the diet . The feet that look injured could be from foot rot??? Foot rot starts from a cut between the toe's and can swell extremely big. In cattle hoof rot is treated by giving a few shot's of penicillin. If it's truly foot rot there's not much you can do .. to capture and give shot's on that many animals won't happen..
-
Bobcat's probably right
-
I feel that Hoof Rot is the result of the elk being pushed around too much from hunters. :peep:
-
I think Hoof rot comes from reading Gay Marriage and Poaching topics on Hunt-Wa..... :chuckle:
-
For some reason my feet are starting to hurt.... :dunno:
-
It would be kind of interesting to see if penicillin would work...on at least one elk. The herds in the coweeman and battleground units that I have witnessed at less than 100 ft. through a hi powered spotting scope or hanging in a buddies shop have had different but obviously shared charactoristics...either hooves that are long and odd shaped or hooves that are almost gone down to a stub in the same herd. I don't believe it is 2 different conditions that started at the same time. I would just like a veterinarian to do some testing on a live animal to see if it is a curible disease, bab diet, genetic, aliens or whatever. It would be nice to know, even if its not possible to give every elk with the hoof problem a shot. This is just getting out of control. I see it spread farther and farther....up in the hills now, completely away from farms and residences.
I don't believe its spraying or pestisides by timber industries only because it hit the area closest to the private lands first....at least around here, but its growing at an allarming rate. I don't know of a food that has changed around here in the last 5 years, but 5 years ago the elk were fine near my house. I am also contacting the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, I'm a Life Member and for me this is more important than purchasing more habitat at this point. Funding for this has got to come from somewhere and the RMEF is usually up to the task of trying to better our elk herds. Maybe a letter with a donation.
I post about hoof rot quite a bit, just trying to get more people aware and this site has many members that are willing to speak up. Something needs to be done....soon.
-
Once a pack of wolves show up you will not see any limper's..
-
WDFW needs to add another special permit to thin out the hoof rottin elk. Great revinue maker! :chuckle:
-
WDFW needs to add another special permit to thin out the hoof rottin elk. Great revinue maker! :chuckle:
They did that last year. Did you see all the cow elk permits given out for Coweeman, Toutle, and Winston? :yike:
-
I think my wifes in trouble then! Shot cow with no hoof rot. Ill have her call WDFW and see if she can get another tag. :chuckle:
-
Here is a video taken last week in Winston. Shows how bad this problem is. Every elk in this herd has it. Makes me sick
feature=youtu.be
-
Such a shame.
-
Wow hate to see that. Makes me wonder what action they will take to deal with this. Wolves would clean em up quik but then we would have 200 hungry wolves! :yike: I think they should open everything up including margaret and toutle for few seasons. Its going to spread south and east next. They gotta stop it by any means possible. :'(
-
thats a damn shame ....guess it would not be to hard to catch up to this herd ... :bash: :dunno:
-
I'm seeing it all the way to Pe Ell and Raymond. It just makes me sick to my stomach. I just sent the video to my friend at the US Geological survey who specializes in elk. Will be interesting to see what he has to say. From his response to my picture last year I don't think he believed it is as big a problem as it is. I think he will believe me now! Thank you for posting the video. Even if I now have to go buy some Maalox.
-
Thats a sad video.
-
I'm seeing it all the way to Pe Ell and Raymond. It just makes me sick to my stomach. I just sent the video to my friend at the US Geological survey who specializes in elk. Will be interesting to see what he has to say. From his response to my picture last year I don't think he believed it is as big a problem as it is. I think he will believe me now! Thank you for posting the video. Even if I now have to go buy some Maalox.
please let me know what he says. I have also sent this to fish and wildlife. It blows my mind on how this has become such a problem and nobody has any answers.
-
I can't even find two biologists that agree on the cause.
-
That sucks I hate to see animals suffer! I think they are kinda trying to take care of the problem now. They gave out a ton of cow tags last year and again this year. I dont think many hunters out there are going to be selective on shooting just elk with hoof rot so I guess giving out all the tags is there solution to the problem. Atleast a few of the elk with the problem will be taken. I know I ended up taking a young cow last year that had it in her back feet in the margaret unit, and I will be honest I took the first elk I had a good shot at. I wasnt looking to see if she had hoof rot.
-
That is really really sad to see. It did look as if virtually every elk in that herd had it. Giving out a bunch of permits is only going toile things worse those elk are being pushed around until January with those cow permits. No time to recover from such a debilitating disease if you are constantly on the run.
-
This is the response i got from Tom Toman, Director of Conservation at Rocky Mt Elk Foundation
"
No one has any answers to this problem right now. We have been tracking it since 2007 and have just approved some funds to get three world experts in Hoof Rot to come to WA and look at situation and work with WDFW. The WDFW and the WA AG state vet have looked into it and are trying to determine which of the 40 hoof rots this might be. After that is answered, they will have to determine what can be done about it. You can't corral a bunch of wild elk and run them through a dipping trough every week for a month. These darn diseases in wildlife are a bit more complicated since they are wild and we are limited in how they can be handled. We have never seen hoof rot to this extent anywhere in elk in North America. Let's hope we can get those folk to fly in to help us. Thanks for your interest.
Best regards!
-
Meeting with Gary Chittim from King 5 this morning about this. Hopefully this will bring more light to the problem. I feel that the future of the Roosevelt Elk in Western Washington is in jeopardy. If we can make more people aware of whats happening maybe WDFW will get this figured out before this spreads any farther than it already has.
-
Good luck with this meathacker. It is a very sad deal...saw my 1st hoof rot last year in Ryderwood, we though it had been shot, but then I realized what it was, was bleeding and everything. My son and I tried to get it, followed it for hours and finally gave us the slip in some jack firs...Seems to really be spreading...
-
This is a reply to a letter a friend of mine sent to the RMEF about hoof rot.
"I have been following this since 2008 and wrote a briefing paper for our staff in early 2009. We know there are more than 40 varieties of hoof rot in the world but it perplexes everyone why this one persists and even is getting much worse. I was on the phone for an hour yesterday with WA DFW discussing this disease and what the solutions might be. They are interested in hosting an expert panel of scientists to meet with some of their department managers, some state veterinarians and with Oregon DFW folks to see if it is prevalent there as well. Three experts have been identified and will be invited to Vancouver to the workshop. The most prominent expert lives in Australia and two other experts are at Colorado State University. RMEF was requested to help sponsor the workshop and help pay travel expenses for these experts so that folks can put their heads together to better identify the problem and look for solutions. If these were cattle, the animals would be slaughtered as there is no known treatment that is effective. Of course the stakes are really different in wild populations since you cannot test each animal easily or maybe at all. WDFW has taken elk in this condition to try to identify if the problem is nutritional shortfalls or some other causal factor. They are getting hundred of phone calls this year compared to dozens in years past and their field personnel all say they are observing more animals this year than before. It is frustrating for sure, but there seems to be no definitive answer at this time. We will work with the WDFW, the WA state veterinarians and with experts to determine if there is a causal factor and if so how to deal with it in wild animals. Sorry I don't have a clear straight forward answer but no one has seen this disease and this infection rate before."
Maybe the letters and phone calls are starting to work. Hoping they can find some answers. Glad the RMEF got involved also. Another thing that I see around my place....all the elk are now infected, but none of the deer have it.
-
Forgive me if this has been brought up but is there a chance that the timber companies are spraying a new chemical that is having an effect on the elk?
-
Forgive me if this has been brought up but is there a chance that the timber companies are spraying a new chemical that is having an effect on the elk?
I've wondered this too, whether it be the chemical itself being harmful directly to elk or if it prevents certain browse from growing in the area that elk need?
I had read before that they have noticed a lack of certain minerals in elk that were affected and that the region lacked those minerals also.
-
King 5 will have a story about this tonight at 630. been up in the woods with them all day. Make sure to tune in! Hopefully this will help make a difference
-
The problem in my area started down low near houses and farms. It is spreading into timber company lands, but the worst areas and first hit were not the timber companies. There has never been a study done on a living elk according to the WDFW (no funds they say).
I wonder if King 5 will post a link to the story...can't watch it tonight. Maybe someone will post a link if they find one.
So glad to see people, the news and the RMEF getting involved. I hope we haven't waited too long and they find the only way to stop it is to kill infected elk. Someone needs to find an answer soon, it is spreading at an allarming rate. Never seen it 5 years ago where I live, but they all have it now and I have seen it in all corners of the Coweeman unit to some extent. Once you've seen a herd of 30+ all limping, you start to look for limping elk and bad hooves wherever you go.
-
Ill post up the link on it tonight
-
It is on now.
-
http://www.king5.com/news/environment/Elk-hoof-disease-threaten-Mount-St-Helens-herd-159258065.html (http://www.king5.com/news/environment/Elk-hoof-disease-threaten-Mount-St-Helens-herd-159258065.html)
-
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. :twocents:
-
Many of these things often come about when animals are hanging out in one place for long periods of time.
Feed stations?
-
You guys know that wolves are the solution they will come up with.
-
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. :dunno:
-
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. :twocents:
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.
-
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. :rolleyes: :chuckle:
-
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. :twocents:
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
Does this effect deer hoofs?
-
I have never seen an infected deer. Not even the deer hanging around 30+ infected elk.
-
I haven't noticed this in the Yale herds I keep an eye on. Keep my fingers crossed.