Doe with a long toe

[Cut N Run]

I have been feeding the deer here at my house for 17 years.  There are a few hundred acres of woods behind me and a large wooded subdivision beside that. The herd numbers tend to stay around 12 individuals and those numbers change with new fawns added to the mix in the Spring and buck dispersal in the Fall. The herd expands to about double that number in the worst part of winter. I lose a few to hunting and a few to the road. Since I take deer from other places, It is important for me to give back here at this "house herd".  I enjoy watching, studying the movements of, and learning from those deer. They have taught me a lot.
 
There is a particular doe who is a regular visitor here, who injured her foot over the winter, probably by stepping into a hole when she was running or something similar.  Her right front foot swelled up to about the size of a baseball and she could not put any weight on it.  Over time, the swelling went down and she walks on it fairly normally now.  The inside toe of her right front hoof now grows much longer than the other side of the hoof.  I can approach this animal fairly closely and will try to get a picture of her foot to show what I'm talking about.
 
Has anybody else ever encountered this on a deer?  My guess is that because she does no put weight evenly on that foot, the inside hoof does not get trimmed naturally by wearing down as she walks on abrasive surfaces.  It looks really odd and makes her track very distinctive.
 
I would be curious to hear if anybody else has encountered this?
 
Jim
 
 

[Cut N Run]

Since it has rained here so much lately, I have noticed that the doe I was talking about has worn her toe down to where it is only slightly longer than the other side. I guess during the winter, she walked more on top of the hard ground and since it has gotten wet she sinks in causing hoof wear. She had her fawn(s) about 10 days ago and has not been traveling with the herd. I guess she is coming here when I am gone, though I saw her right before dark a few days ago in the rain. My wife has seen her mid-morning with one fawn in tow.

Jim

[scottflesher]

cut, i haven't seen that exact injury but i do have a friend who had several bucks coming into his food plots a few years ago. There was a spike with what appeared to be a compound fracture on his right front leg below the knee. He could hardly walk per the trail cam photos and videos. 3 years later (the 2009 bow season) there was a 14 point (not much tine length, but good spread and 7 perfect matching points on each side) that was coming into the same food plot. The deer had a dinstinct bump on his right front leg below the knee. A boardering neighbor harvested the deer in bow season and when my friend found out about it later that day, he went over and looked at the knee. It appeared to be a healed broken bone.
Was it the same spike from 3 years ago? We'll never know but i'd bet it was.
What I learned from that story is that the whitetail is a survior. They may be able to survive the most critical injuries even if we think they couldn't. I hate to see deer suffer and have harvested some deer for "mercy" reasons, but after hearing this story, unless the deer can barely walk, i'm going to put the decision in God's hands and hope that there isn't alot of suffering in the process.

[woodsalta]

Two years ago I shot a doe that had one toe longer than the other. I didn't see any type of injury to her leg, but at the same time it didn't cross my mind that there might have been an injury.

[Woods Walker]

Is this what they call "doe toe"? [:D]