So this doe walked on to our property today and just sat about for a couple of hours. it was behaving oddly and allowed us to get closer than a wild animal normally would.
I called our Boone County MDC conservation agent and described the animals behavior. He said that it was consistent with Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) that has been identified this summer (and not
CWD*). Apparently, it happens in season with sever drought and is transmitted by fly bites. Here is a recent
MDC blog entry regarding EHD.
After a while the doe started to violently thrash around and was in obvious distress, it was a sad sight. The animal did not appear to be in good health. It was skinny, it's fur was in bad shape and seemed in poor health overall.
On the advice of the conservation agent, I put the animal down and hauled it out to the woods to dispose of the carcass.
Incidentally, the cart I used was a
Timber Ridge cart and it worked great, especially over tall grass and rough ground:
*(we have not had any cases of chronic wasting disease in Boone County)
