What causes deer to have a club foot?

By Grant Woods,

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Question
Dr. Grant Woods I’ve been following your youtube channel for quite some time now doing, and learning alot of stuff from you, and your team! Excellent work by the way! I also incorporate them into what I do. On today’s video I notice you showed a pic of a buck that looks like mine I call “Club Foot”. I’m wondering if you could please tell me what this is? I will post more pics of my Iowa giant in the comments. This picture I believe was late July early August. Thank you so much for your time, effort, and tips from you, and your team I truly hope to meet you one day, and shake your hand.

Joe,

Thank you for the kind words!  We offer a lot more information at GrowingDeer.com than we can on YouTube. We release a new episode every Monday about 6:30am Central time.

Deer, it seems bucks more than does, tend to break their foot just above their hooves.  I don’t know if this is from fighting, chasing etc.  I’ve cut into a few of these on tagged bucks and they always appear to be a calcified joint or bone.  I’m always amazed at how well deer can survive with such injuries.

I hope our paths cross soon!

Enjoy creation,

Grant