badlandbucks
Ten Pointer
Anyone ever seen anything like this? Craziest looking deer I have ever seen!
What is going on with this deer?
- Thread starter badlandbucks
- Start date
Hard to tell from the pictures, he may identify as a pronghorn?
creekhobo
Ten Pointer
Inflated Ego Disorder 
HarryNC
Eight Pointer
Never saw one with puffy jowls like that. Too much time at the salt lick, causing water retention?
he's all swole up from walking up that really steep hill,,,,rheumatism you know,,,
Ruminal tympany (rumen bloat).
lbksmom
Banned
I think she is really having quad fawns, someone feeding her steroids. So she is excercising up the hill every day, really getting pumped up!!!!
badlandbucks
Ten Pointer
Never heard of this! very interesting.
Happens in most ruminant animals. More prevalent in cattle and goats, but can happen with any ruminant.
badlandbucks
Ten Pointer
Just mentioned this to a vet...his response was that Rumen bloat is very localized and this deer is puffed up all over the torso. Said it also would have been dead (suffocated) long before it got that blown up from rumen distention. He said it is more likely subcutaneous emphysema (air under the skin).
I never heard of either condition before today
I saw a deer with the exact conditions of the deer in your photo while working at the whitetail research facilities at UGA. The wildlife vets and biologists there called it ruminal tympany after euthanizing the deer and posting it. I'm not a vet and I was just relaying what I had seen before. If it is subcutaneous emphysema, the deer has probably been wounded or hit by a vehicle and the expanding "bloat" will contribute to gangrene soon.
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badlandbucks
Ten Pointer
well it seems most likely it is one of the two....either way i pity the thing. Doesn't sound like either one is pleasant.
Man .... a short ,fat, no neck guy ain’t got a chance around here