Does this deer have a perruque head?
In hot weather the antler tissue becomes infected and possibly fly-blown, leading to a painful death.
By Richard Prior
Sunday, 26 August 2007
At the end of the rut a yearling buck on my ground was still in dark velvet and showed no signs of drying. The buck has an ear-high four-point head and appears in excellent condition. Is this a perruque and, if so, how long will it take to develop?
A: The fact that this young buck is apparently in good health does seem to indicate that some hormonal imbalance, rather than disease or injury, has prevented the normal drying and fraying process.
Unless this corrects itself soon, the growth of a perruque head is likely.
How rapidly a perruque can grow has only been documented, surprisingly, on an elderly doe.
This tame animal grew short antlers in velvet, as some old does do, and only after a couple of years did this suddenly enlarge into a real perruque.
In the case of a male, I guess the process might be much quicker, but the change from remaining in velvet to producing exaggerated growth might involve something of a threshold.
The natural surge of antler growth which occurs in late winter could be kept up and your buck's progress monitored.
If he has developed into a perruque by next summer, it would be kindness to shoot him because in hot weather the antler tissue becomes infected and possibly fly-blown, leading to a painful death.
In hot weather the antler tissue becomes infected and possibly fly-blown, leading to a painful death.
By Richard Prior
Sunday, 26 August 2007
At the end of the rut a yearling buck on my ground was still in dark velvet and showed no signs of drying. The buck has an ear-high four-point head and appears in excellent condition. Is this a perruque and, if so, how long will it take to develop?
A: The fact that this young buck is apparently in good health does seem to indicate that some hormonal imbalance, rather than disease or injury, has prevented the normal drying and fraying process.
Unless this corrects itself soon, the growth of a perruque head is likely.
How rapidly a perruque can grow has only been documented, surprisingly, on an elderly doe.
This tame animal grew short antlers in velvet, as some old does do, and only after a couple of years did this suddenly enlarge into a real perruque.
In the case of a male, I guess the process might be much quicker, but the change from remaining in velvet to producing exaggerated growth might involve something of a threshold.
The natural surge of antler growth which occurs in late winter could be kept up and your buck's progress monitored.
If he has developed into a perruque by next summer, it would be kindness to shoot him because in hot weather the antler tissue becomes infected and possibly fly-blown, leading to a painful death.
GO HERE to read the official article.
10 comments:
it looks like cronic wasting disorder.
My husband took one look at that pic and said, "What, is that from drinking the water?"
Countrygirl
I really want to poor an entire bottle of peroxide on the poor thing. I just know it will help.
With all of the allegations flying around,one would THINK the zoo would release a statement of some sort.
As a Vet Tech (NOT A VETERINARIAN,THANK YOU) it would be very EASY to diagnose this.
Whatever it is or is not NEEDS to treated & addressed to the public...PERIOD!!!! ARE YOU LISTENING SALISBURY ZOO????
Sure does seem to me the humane thing to do would be to take this guy down. Would you want to carry that thing around on your head? I doubt it. Where is our zoo vet and whats his prognosis for this animal? Hasn't this poor animal been this way for a year or more?
A. Goetz
The poor guy has been that way at LEAST since last summer.Why hasnt the zoo publically addressed this issue?
cruggly.....what'd you sleep at a motel 6 last night?
i recently visited the zoo (within the last 2 weeks) and saw this deer. i asked one of the techs what it was and i was told that it was a tumor but he was fine... is this the same thing that is mentioned in the article, a non-cancerous tumor of sorts? forgive my ignorance on this...
looks like any vet with a care for animals would be willing to remove this tumor for little or no cost
If that deer was on Animal Cops from Animal Planet, they would have taken custody of it and locked up the mare and Zoo personnel.
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