Has anyone seen this before? I have 3 year old with some kind of blood scab growth or damage to his antler. Don't know if its infected or just a small hole in the velvet that seeped out some blood and its just collected to the velvet and the fly's seem to be attracted to it. What do you think that it is? I am thinking about putting him down to investigate it a little more. Any advise is welcome. Thanks
Is this Possibly Antler Infection
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Definitely a possibility for infection. This late in the year I doubt its going to get infected, blood flow is decreasing a lot as his antlers are getting whiter and not jet black anymore. As long as you don't see maggots in his wound then he'll be fine, but if you see even one maggot, or a lot of flies its best to dart him and clean and strip that little piece of velvet. Last year I had a big breeder buck break a drop tine around August 18th. I watched him every night with binoculars and he had a few flies, but never any maggots. I chose to leave him go without darting, he rubbed out a week and a half later and was fine. If you don't dart him, keep you eye on it, check several times a day for any maggots.
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Brian, While it is late in the season and growing has slowed......................This in my opinion is the DEADLIEST time to get it! Unattended infection as the blood is drawn out of the antlers back into the bucks body only magnifies the danger and once noticed it's worse than you thought the damage is done and often times to late to reverse the effects!
I would not hesitate to investigate further..........I would rather be safe than sorry!
Best Of Luck.................Keep us posted
I would not hesitate to investigate further..........I would rather be safe than sorry!
Best Of Luck.................Keep us posted
We put this buck down last night and investigated the antler and we found that the drop tine was broken and had a hole about the size of a pencil eraser in the velvet, it was not really infected to much, it was pretty fresh wound but it had a very small amount of white fluid that we squeezed out. We zip tied the antler and cut the drop tine off. Gave him some antibiotics for any possible infection. He seems to be doing good today.
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Great. I am glad he is doing ok.