Tranquilizing in Cold Weather

South Alabama Whitetails · Jan 4, 2010

I put in CIDR's 14 days ago in the morning so the plan was to tranquilize to remove cidr's and tranquilize again at 56 hours. My question is, would you tranquilize in extreme cold weather? It is suppose to be 17 degrees here and in the low 20's for days. I know you guys up North don't think that is cold but is extremely cold for here and I am not sure what effect the tranquilizing would have the deer's ability to keep warm.

RTT Whitetails · Jan 4, 2010

Just took the safe capture corse and our instructer worked in Idaho darting in minus conditions. He uses a large blanket to keep warm and maintain body tempature.

South Alabama Whitetails · Jan 4, 2010

Thanks. That makes me feel better.

Jack · Jan 4, 2010

The blood vessels constrict when tranquilzed and this causes frost bite in the legs. But at 20 F I have done many with no problem. I would use a cover of some type on the legs or leg area only. I believe you would need 10 F and below to cause this problem with wind. This is from my personal records. Many years ago I had to dart a buck with a broken leg to cast him. The temp was below zero. This deer did freeze his legs and was put down. It was a hard lesson to learn

Predator3 · Jan 4, 2010

Deerchaser I did 18 deer in 2 degree. The wind chill was below zero and we had no problems. We used space blankets after covering the entire deer including the legs with straw. We made sure the tongues did not freeze. Its best if you can choose a sunny day. The radiant heat will help a bunch. Try to keep a close eye on them for a week or so to make sure no one gets sick. Good luck.

South Alabama Whitetails · Jan 4, 2010

Thanks for all the help.

Droptine · Jan 5, 2010

Brett, just go out and buy a bunch of blankets and once they go down, put a blanket between them and the ground and cover them up and they should be fine. I would definitely take all these precautions in that type of weather. Too risky not to.

CurtisLloyd · Jan 5, 2010

15-20 degrees F is about the limit we will tranq deer. we feel we need a heated recovery area just because the deer have a hard time regulating their body temperature for up to two hours after sedation, they may look fine but hypothermia is setting in on them and you can not tell. we lost two lap AI does to pneumonia about six weeks after AI, know of a case that lost 14 of 14 the same day when it was below -10F ( -25C)

Mira Vista Ranch · Jan 5, 2010

Buy those movers blankets...they work good....We dart them ,and put them in a big trailer, with lots of hay and wait to they wake up.

Tranquilizing in Cold Weather

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