Looking for help with antler issue

With fawning season underway here at my farm I have been loving life, this is no doubt the best time of the year. I am loving deer farming right now, but unfortunately i was hit with some of the bad of raising deer. This morning I was doing a pen check on the yearlings and I seen one of my tame bucks was missing. I took a walk and found him, i immediately found him laying, with both ears pinned back like he was in a bit of pain. I then noticed that he got up to walk and when he did his one antler moved a little with each step. His anlter appears to be broken right at the base but there is no blood on either anlter, its just snapped right at the base and is hanging about an inch closer his ear than it was before the injury. it moves just a little each step. he only has 3 inched outta his head. So here is the question i have:

Should I let this go and just hit him with Banamine for the obvious pain or discomfort he is feeling? Is there any chance at all the antler will fuse back to the pedicle??

Or should I dart, remove the antler and patch him up.

I had this happen one other time in the fall, a buck snapped his antler at the skullplate while still in velvet, his whole antler was dangleing in his face, i darted and removed the anlter immediately. He was good for a while, but after a 2 months of battleing to get healthy the bucks health took a turn for the worse and he passed, from a secondary infection, went from fine one day, sick the next, then all the sudden gone.it happened so fast.

I had the same thing last year. My delimma is that I was leaving so I had no choice. His was filling up with blood and I knew an infection would kill him if I did nothing at all. So at 90 degrees, I darted him, removed it, used blood stopping powder from TSC and smeared some pine tar around the base to keep the flies away. It worked great! He still grew a little spike on top of the injury and this year looks really strong and is only a little behind on that same side so far. He would have been 150 ish, had he grown both last year as a 1 year old, all typical and fantastic.

I would remove it. Everything is more apt to fall back into place without the leverage that comes from the extra length of his antler.

Best of luck!

Thanks so much, I have never worked with antler with in peak bloodflow season, I imagine this is going to be bloody, I will go get some blood stop from TSC tomorrow, and the pine tar. I'll evaluate him better in the morining, but it sound as if cutting the antler ma be best. I feel bad i didnt do anything about it today, but I've had 6 fawns in the last 24 hours and i pulled some from yesterday that are sold to be started on the bottle, the little ones took all my free time tonight.

Antler shed - When I did it, it was on yearlings as well. He had 6 to 8 inches of growth. We put a rubber band around the base, and cut away. The amount of blood was VERY minimal, which shocked the daylights out of me. I expected lots and lots of blood. Someone had told me in the past concerning such an endeavor, stating they won't bleed to death, but you'll think they're gonna. Either this guy was full of beans or I got lucky...or maybe it was the rubberband I used as a tourniquet. We used a small gerber bone saw to cut the antler off, and it was no big deal at all.

So be at peace Antlershed...it won't be near as bad as you think...it wasn't for me anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying forget the blood stop, just saying we didn't and didn't need it on the 2 yearling bucks I've cut before.

And I don't think you've done the buck any great dis-service by not attending to him today.

Please let us know if he bled much, if you used a tourniquet, etc etc.

Best of luck!

Sandridge is right with the rubber band under the pedicle. If you take a really thick rubber band or something like that and wrap it around several times it should stop most of the blood. I have done this several times on some very big deer. I recommend cauterization, you can use a de-horner that you would use on a calf or goat. Really anything that will get really hot and stay hot, all you do is slowly work your way around the base being sure to burn all the tissue in the little nooks and crannies. The skin will almost shrink when your doing this leaving some of the bone exposed so you can see where you have and have not burned. After you think you are all done you can remove the bands, be ready for some squirting blood, it is not out the of question at this point. If you do not see any, you know you did a good job of it. This is my recommendation as it leaves little room for infection and flies to set up camp any where. Good luck.

Here is a yearling that I have that has broken one side. No velvet is broken and it doesnt move around much if any at all. I was planning on leaving it alone. Now you got me thinking I should cut it off. What do you think?

ER.....



That doesn't look too bad. As long as you're there to monitor health condition and or swelling/bleeding, I would leave it alone too.



Mine was definately in pain, hanging down by his eye, and swelling up like a nerf football.

ER...my concern and question would be is if you leave that like it is, will it permanently affect the angle of growth. But...that being said, the angle that it could change to will only make him wider...so maybe the effect should be welcomed instead of stopped should that be the case. lol

Todd could be right when he said to just leave it alone and to watch him very closely!

Whatever you do...best of luck!

All seemed to go well tonight, took the advice of those that chimed in, thanks guys.



His skullcap was busted, so i removed the antler to take the weight off his head. I put a small rubberband between the antlers to act as a sort of brace til the pedicle re-attaches to the skull. Jonny and mark, i did rubberband his base about 10 minutes before i cut, it worked well, there was very little blood. I loved the bloodstop too, it did it job., Lastly I coated him with some alum bandage, its pretty nice stuff. As much as i tried to do what i could, I know he's in the Lords hands, I pray he gets better, and grows a good rack in a couple years. Thanks guys! it would be alot harder to be a deer farmer without these forums. and just to show how little he bled, here is a pic, there was probably only to tablespoons of bloodloss, if that.

ER, that is what this buck looked like before i cut him, and a was afraid his pedicle would never reset with the constant little motions. Your buck seems to be in the same boat judgeing by your photos, but if he is not showing pain and dosen't get swelling maybe you could get away without acting on it. i decided on my cutting ulimately becase my buck showed signs of pain, and this moring began to swell. It helps that Todd and Mark and others posted there suggestions, it gave me some confidence i was doing the right thing. Good luck with him, whatever route you go.

Antlershed - Thankyou for posting your results and the pics thereof. It helps us all!



Oh...did you remember/think to remove the tourniquet?

update photo of this buck, as of this morning. his antler is exactly to the point in growth that it was before i cut it.

The broken antler on the buck that I had posted a pic of earlier this year kept dropping lower and lower so I put him down and cut it off. This was a pic of him on 7/23/12.

here he is all finished. should be good to go next year.

Looks great! I'll try and post an update of my "surgery" outcome.

Here you go, he still put some on his left side. He should be a real pig this next year!