# Longest toenails ever on a buck killed this past wknd- freak?



## Hydrocat (Jun 30, 2004)

Anyone ever seen a deer with longer hooves? Deer seemed fine otherwise.


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## coup de grace (Aug 7, 2010)

WOW.


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## bluefin (Aug 16, 2005)

You hunting next to the S TX power plant?


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## RogerB (Oct 11, 2005)

Unusual for sure


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## realwrangler (Jan 21, 2011)

*foundering*

that is called foundering, it can be caused by excessive carb intake


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## Auer Power (Jun 16, 2009)

I guess crossing your fingers & toes for good luck doesn't work after all.
Weird for sure.


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## patwilson (Jan 13, 2006)

Wicked Doe of the West!


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## poco jim (Jun 28, 2010)

To much protein.


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## realwrangler (Jan 21, 2011)

*foundering*

A deer that exhibits foundering is taking in way too many carbohydrates. Either this is a problem directly related to the forage that the animal is eating or it has to do with the way the deer is processing its food. More often than not, it has to do with what the deer is eating. A diet high in corn contributes to foundering. Corn, of course, is primarily carbohydrates. Hoof tissue is very similar to antler tissue. If you are feeding protein to grow larger bodied deer and larger antlers then you are also feeding to grow deer with longer hooves. Foundering is almost always the result of a deer consuming too many carbohydrates too fast. The result is a buildup of acid in the rumen, which kills the bacteria that digest carbohydrates. This action then results in an increasing pH in the blood that can hurt or possibly even kill the deer from acidosis.


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## Shorty Bang Bang (May 6, 2005)

I hunt just outside Menard. I have a main frame 10 with two kickers that has long hooves on the front and back legs. His hooves are slightly longer than the ones pictured here. I saw this buck many times during the season and passed on him because he was 3 1/2 years old. He looks like he is crippled when he walks around but he is able to do everything he needs to do to survive. 

There was a buck taken on our lease three years ago with the same type of hooves. That buck was 6 1/2 years old and scored low 160's and was in excellent shape. it is amazing how animals can adapt.


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## slabnabbin (May 25, 2010)

The only other deer I have seen like that was in menard. The land owner of a lease we had fed deer by hand and the oldest one had hooves just as long as those pictured.


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## daryl1979 (Dec 17, 2010)

I shot one back in November that had one toe nail like that.


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## DXT Steve (Jan 16, 2012)

poco jim said:


> To much protein.


X2!!! Seen An Aoudad worse than that once!


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## BigBuck (Mar 2, 2005)

*Protein*

It has a name, but I cannot remember it, been too long since I milked cows. That typically is a problem of excess protein, not carbs. Milk cows will develope hooves like that and have to be trimmed. Many of our milk cows had that problem. Combination of genetics and protein. It can cripple them, but they usually adapt. Since it can be genetic, I would remove any from the herd that displayed that trait. 
BB


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## Bukkskin (Oct 21, 2009)

Foundered.


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## James Howell (May 21, 2004)

This also happens to the muleys out in the sand hills of SE New Mexico. Any mature buck you shoot looks like he's wearing elf shoes. The deer walk on nothing but sand (doesn't chip the hooves down at all) and eat nothing but shinnery oak (i.e. carbs). Weird the first time you see it.


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## Hydrocat (Jun 30, 2004)

Appreciate it guys, great info! We have never been accussed of over feeding the protein, that's for sure. We have a low fence 7K acres which does however border a 3K low fence with some guys that do year-round protein and corn feed. 

We get some of our best bucks and exotics from that side that wonder over to us!


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

James Howell said:


> This also happens to the muleys out in the sand hills of SE New Mexico. Any mature buck you shoot looks like he's wearing elf shoes. The deer walk on nothing but sand (doesn't chip the hooves down at all) and eat nothing but shinnery oak (i.e. carbs). Weird the first time you see it.


We seen it sometimes on a lease in Port Lavaca. My best bow buck had feet like that...6.5yo we had the same basic thing as James, but mud and soft soil...nothing to trim the "toes". We only fed corn during the season on a 8k ranch.


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## Spots and Dots (May 23, 2004)

Typically, the backstraps are bad on deer like this. I'd like to run some analysis on it. Where could i pick it up?


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## K14 (Sep 6, 2010)

We have killed deer with hooves like that in Mississippi. Biologists say it is bluetongue disease.


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## Kyle 1974 (May 10, 2006)

Too much protein. You see it on pen raised deer sometimes.


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## Game On (Apr 28, 2008)

Foundered


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## StoryTeller (Apr 13, 2011)

It happens in Horses also but if it gets too bad they have to be put down.


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## BigBuck (Mar 2, 2005)

*Blue tongue*

K14 is right, survivors of bluetongue will sometimes exibit this trait as well.


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## Bull Red Daddy (Oct 7, 2006)

BigBuck said:


> K14 is right, survivors of bluetongue will sometimes exibit this trait as well.


And there was a heck of a bluetongue outbreak in the Menard area 3 or 4 years ago.


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## aggie2015 (Dec 9, 2010)

We do a lot of TPWD hunts and every deer we have seen killed out on Matagorda Island has feet that bad or worse. Walking in nothing but sand.


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## deerdude2000 (Feb 17, 2006)

Did you bring that buck to the muy grande deer contest? Saw one there with hooves that long or longer.


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## Hydrocat (Jun 30, 2004)

deerdude2000 said:


> Did you bring that buck to the muy grande deer contest? Saw one there with hooves that long or longer.


We wish- he was about a 115 class 8 pt, about 6 yrs old.


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## skniper (Oct 31, 2008)

We shot a long hoof about 12 years ago on our schleicher cty lease. Never saw another one in all the years there..nicknamed the "elf buck". He was very young, kind of a mercy kill.


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## S.O.B.(Salt On the Brain) (Jan 8, 2006)

There are a lot of things it could be. Diet. Sandy soil. Disease. Some animals just walk on their heels and don't wear their toes down.

I used to trim hooves on dairy cattle and some of them neede constant attention, while others never needed a trim. Had dogs like that, too. One needed his claws trimmed every week or two and the other one never had his claws trimmed in his life.

Give me a hoof knife and a grinder and I'll have that guy cleaned up and ready to go in about 2 minutes!

LF


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