OUR POOR LITTLE INJURED DEER

One of our regular deer had been missing from the group for a few days. When she returned she had a huge injury on her side. It was open, raw and appeared to be quite deep. We didn’t think it was a gun shot as she probably would not have survived a shot to her side like that. It looked more like she had gotten caught on something and ripped the hair and a hunk of flesh off. Barbed wire, a fence post, a branch of a stout tree all could have caused a rip like that if she was running fast or had to pull hard to get unhooked.

The next three days she did not return and I was so afraid she had gotten a bad infection and lied down and died in the woods. But then, just when I was about to despair that she was lost, she appeared again last night. Her wound appeared to be much smaller and had dried up considerably. And, although she was much thinner than she was before the injury and moving slower than usual, she was definitely lucky to be on the mend.