Lost one of the locals.
Buddy of mine saw a buck laying dead in a spring run near a dirt road...........like 30 feet down over the bank. I was on my way home so he met me there. I was figuring poached from the road or a non-recovered archery hit. Neither.
I wish I had taken a picture of the deer as it layed.
This buck was right in the spring run, facing upstream, underneath at least 3 logs, none of which was more than a foot off the ground. His antlers got wedged in a V where 2 of the logs crossed. His nose was under 3 inches of water. He drowned.
I have NO clue as to why this deer was trying to belly under logs he could have gone through, over or around. Funny thing is...........he was 25 feet from the source of the spring........which comes out of the base of a 30 foot horseshoe-shaped embankment that is nearly vertical. There was really nowhere he was going to go except turn around and go back the way he came in.
(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1910/43855159950_0e56c31a1a_b.jpg)
Weird. Sometimes animals do dumb stuff.
CDW makes them do stupid stuff! I hope not but here in MS. We have two confirmed cases of it!
Sounds like he had a high fever and was seeking relief.
Sounds more like EHD or Blue tongue. Both of those give the deer a fever and they seek water.
I never remember the "E", but it's hemorrhage disease. I watched a buck in his last breathing minutes a couple of years ago and it's pitiful. It was in town so we couldn't shoot it and the warden was on his way over.