Death from shade cloth

My five year old doe died on the 15th after a long struggle. She hadn't been eating pellets or treats, barely drinking water, dark green diarrhea, and she was very lethargic. We gave her NuFlor , Ivomec, and 40cc of Bovi Sera over the course of 4 days. Plus pumping Pepto and Ensure down her and treating her water with Corid and electrolytes. She ended up dying anyway, we did an autopsy on her and found two softball sized wads of black shade cloth inside her. One in her stomach and one in her intestines. The best part is that we don't even use shade cloth! It was inside her since I bought her last year from a buddy's whitetail farm. He has also been having deaths from deer eating shade cloth but usually it's the size of a golf ball.

Has this ever happen to anyone else?

Sorry for your loss! I feel bad for the ol gal that must have been aweful painful. I personally have never seen this but i have heard some horror stories in relation to shade cloth and being entangled.

Very helpless feeling when you cant figure out whats wrong! then it turns out to be plastic, very sad! sorry for your loss!



Scott Neeb

www.chanllowfarms.com

I had a buck die on me this summer because of shade cloth. I.ripped it all down now!

I wouldn't use it ever down here,

I use roof sheets (corrugated Iron) were I need a visual barrier. Seen this & similar things like plastic bags, balloons ,rubber gloves ,etc, kill deer too often.



Cheers Sharkey

Deer are like horses in this manner, some chew on it some leave it alone, just like a horse on a barn door. The easy way is to put the shade cloth on the outside of the fence which should help to deter them from wanting to chew on it. I have not heard on one dieing from it but have seen some photos of buck wrapped up in cheaper shade cloth and ground cover material which unwraps itself. I also sell and harder plastic material that is solid and the deer will not be able to chew it due to the thickness. I am sorry for your loss Autumn A, a loss of any of our deer sticks.

Thanks guys it means a lot! We were actually going to buy some shade cloth but decided we had enough trees for the shade part. I don't know if its just our deer but they are quite the foodies! Especially the doe that died. We had put orange snow fence around our pens because we are in a big hunting area and the deer chewed on that some but seemed to leave it alone after a few days. If they did eat some I think it would be able to pass. Any thoughts?

Sharkey, the corrugated iron is an excellent idea thanks! I met another deer farmer who used wood slats and weaved them through the fence.

Autumn-A give me a call, I have another item here that might work for your needs and it will last longer then the fence will, might save you some money as well if you are not going the shade cloth way.

I am sorry for your lose. I know how you feel. We had a buck about 5 years ago get really sick and tried everything and he still died. When I have a deer die and don't know what is wrong. I always do an necropsy on them. He had a big wad of shade cloth in his stomach. We had another doe that acted the same years later and we put her down thinking it was the same thing and it was another wad in her stomach. I went to a farm after that all happened and they had a whole bunch of it laying on the ground and hanging on the fence all torn and shredded. I told him my story and he said he had lost a few deer and didn't know what had killed them and all had the same symptoms mine had. If you put it on the outside of the fence and watch really close and soon as they tear a spot in it replace that section soon. If they eat the little strands that come off they will usually pass it, but when they get a larger piece off and chew it up and swallow it they are dead. A quick fix if they tear a whole in it until you can replace it is take a small propane torch and burn the edge of the tear all the way around and it melts the plastic and makes a good seal all around the tear. I personally will not use it anymore accept for my one pen that just has doe in them and only put it on the outside.