Anyone take a deer with a broken leg? how was the meat?

[Joseph]

I have been watching this buck since early October that has a broken hind leg. I finally got some good trail cam photos of him and have started to wonder if the meat on the broken hind quarter will be useable. I'm no doctor but it looks to me like his leg has been broken for a long time and the leg has atrophied. photos follow, tell me what you think and or if you have any similar experience.

I will go out with the bow Friday and/or Saturday and I will take him down given an opportunity but I have been wondering about the meat quality.

 

[BUFF7MM]

I killed a seven point about 10 years ago that was missing the lower half of his front leg it looked like it had been broken and somehow got removed and healed over, I had no problem with the meat from that deer. His antler on the opposite side was misformed. I noticed on the picture that the antler on that buck is the same way, just wondering if antler growth has anything to do with an injury like that.

 

[lx1x]

maybe just a deformed from birth (antler).. leg.. maybe got hit by a car?


last week.. another hunting club member took a shot at a doe w/ a bow couple weeks back.. never saw the deer until he showed us a picture from his trail cam.. eating the corn pile with a bow still stuck on the front shoulder.

 

[FFMike]

I killed a seven point about 10 years ago that was missing the lower half of his front leg it looked like it had been broken and somehow got removed and healed over, I had no problem with the meat from that deer. His antler on the opposite side was misformed. I noticed on the picture that the antler on that buck is the same way, just wondering if antler growth has anything to do with an injury like that.

I have read articles where biologists' have said that if a right leg is injured the left antler would be deformed the next cycle on antler growth and vice-versa.

 

[BUFF7MM]

I have read articles where biologists' have said that if a right leg is injured the left antler would be deformed the next cycle on antler growth and vice-versa.

I thought I had heard that somwhere before but I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not.

 

[BUFF7MM]

Here's a couple of pictures of it:

 

[Derwood]

The difference between the meat on the good leg and the meat on the crippled leg will probably be somewhat like difference between the meat of a pasture-raised chicken's legs vs. a cage (industrially) raised legs. The chickens raised in the big houses are usually so big that they can't really use their legs much and that's why the leg meat is a little...flimsy I guess is the word. It's not as dense and solid as the stuff you'll find on a bird that ran around during its life. Kind of like the difference between farmed vs. wild fish. Both are edible and good, but one is more flavorful and denser.

In any case please kill it and satisfy our now mutual curiosity! Hopefully you don't catch polio

 

[BeltBuckle]

The meat should be safe to eat (at least, no safety difference in the meat from one vs the other leg, if the injury is healed and there is no sign of local linfection...). A broken leg at the right time of year could very well lead to deformed or stunted antlers, but there would be no left vs right correlation (i.e., if the left leg is dinged it won't necessarily be the right antler deformed -- could be either, both, or neither) but not likely unless the injury was healing during a critical stage of antler growth. This would be unlikely to apply in subsequent years.

(I AM a biologist, and I occasionally play one on TV)

 

[davsco]

few years ago i put down a deer in our yard that apparently recently got hit by car and had one rear leg shattered and in bad shape. dressed it and took to butcher and let's just say he wasn't real thrilled. i guess he thought good chance if not certainty that it affected the rest of the body/meat.

with an old injury and otherwise doing well, prob not an issue.

 

[Deep Creek Rock]

Might have stepped into a leghold trap - my brother used to get deer wreck his sets from stepping into the traps.

Ive also heard that antler injuries do come back the following year. Its weird how nature works sometimes.

 

[Joseph]

Thanks for the input guys. Now the pressure is on to whack him and answer some questions. This is my first year hunting and I only have one notch on the riser but I'll do my best.

 

[Russ D]

maybe just a deformed from birth (antler).. leg.. maybe got hit by a car?


last week.. another hunting club member took a shot at a doe w/ a bow couple weeks back.. never saw the deer until he showed us a picture from his trail cam.. eating the corn pile with a bow still stuck on the front shoulder.

Someone needs to teach him to shoot the arrow at the deer and not the bow.

 

[Joseph]

Someone needs to teach him to shoot the arrow at the deer and not the bow.

and here I thought I was the noob

 

[Treeguy]

I would say its fine...one look when the skin is off should tell you a story..

Bucks often grow a strange side when a leg is broken or injured

 

[onespentround]

I took a chick with a broken leg........The casket gave me a rug burn!!!!... BTW I have taken a deer with a damaged leg.....

 

[honda53s]

That broken leg will make for some great jerky!

 

[Lou45]

The broken appendage could be the result of running and stepping in a groundhog hole. Farmers have a problem with the same result with their livestock.

 

[foxtrapper]

The injury is old and healed as evidenced by the weird left antler, which grew that way due to the right side injury. The unused damaged leg has atrophied muscle, but what is there is ok to eat. The rest of the meat is ok as well. The meat as a whole is only in question if there is a festering wound at the time of the kill, as such a wound may have developed gangrene which then gets into the bloodstream and can make all of the animal toxic.

Buff17, who did that mount? eeek!

 

[itsslow98]

That leg will probably be best used for ground. I bet it would be extremely tough eaten as anything else.

 

[Lou45]

I took a chick with a broken leg........The CASKET gave me a rug burn!!!!... BTW I have taken a deer with a damaged leg.....

Uuuggghhhh,,,,,,,,was she dead??? Or were the two of you just getting kinky at the funeral parlor??? I think you meant the word CAST and not CASKET.

I saw a deer in my backyard last year with a cast on it's leg and using deer crutches........