is bluetounge more likely in this heat?

i found one nice buck dead in a creek, and while my girlfriend and i were out spotlighting for bullfrogs saturday nite, i shined some eyes.

we were seeing a lot of deer all along the river but theese eyes were close to the ground, so i thought it might be something else but as we got closer i shined my light on it again, and it was a big buck laying next to the water with his tounge hanging out the side of his mouth like he had been chasing does durring the rutt.(at first i thought he might have been hit by a train)

he let us get pretty close and we thought it was pretty cool(especially me) being that close to a real big buck. he got up and went into the trees. so we continued on up the river, and when we were coming back down i was shining the other side of the river and we were back to where we seen the big buck, we heard a big spash behind us and i turned the light in that direction and there he was standing in the water up to his chin less than 20 yds from us( wow!). he talerated us a couple minutes before bouncing to the bank and wandered off up through the weeds and into the trees.

so the next mornning on our way back down the river is when i found the other deer dead in a creek and it hit me that the big buck would most likely be dead also if it was blue tounge,

i talked to some kyakers that said they seen one farther up the river with its head cut off so im thinking the heat is causing the blue tounge around here.

i dont know much about the dasease but thats what im thinking it is.

           what do you think?

[fireman_3311]

Yes!!  Let your local Cons Agent know!!!

[awbowman]

I do know that they CRAVE water with blue tongue, but not sure it causes it.  It may though, our lease got hit several years ago, and it was a very dry year.

I think baiting spreads it.

i will fireman.

[KentuckyTJ]

Bluetongue is transfered to the deer from midges. Just do an internet search. Lots of info.

[fireman_3311]

Originally posted by KentuckyTJ:
Bluetongue is transfered to the deer from midges. Just do an internet search. Lots of info.

This!!

[Grizzbear]

Im no expert but we had blue tounge pretty bad in mid to western south dakota last year. I was told by some older local boy that its from the stagnate water holes. So im assuming this year will be worse cause of no fresh rain. Why dont they lite off one of them big ole firecrackers and make it rain like the other countries.

i looked it up,

      EHD, epizootic hemorrhagic disease; caused by biting flies or midges.

[JPE]

More likely in the drought conditions we are currently having. The flies or midges are hatched near the water edge. when the deer come for water they are bitten. Less water around makes the deer congregate more at existing water so they get bit.

             Jim Pyles

[KOOK68]

We had it bad years ago. Midges do in fact cause it. Another way to identify it is the hooves of the deer will separate from the foot.

[wapiti792]

We lost a small portion of our deer herd 4 years ago to EHD. This year was to be the year the bucks (and herd) recovered...except here in our county we are now a federal diaster area due to the drought. By this time every year I have found 2 or 3 bach groups of bucks to start figuring out. This year I am not finding them...then my neighbor sent me some pics of a giant buck dead in his pond. One that I know was at least 4 years old. If we don't get the motherload of rain in the next few weeks I think EHD could really put a big dent in our herd like 4 years ago.

i contacted my area biologist,  and he said they were getting several reports of this sort.
 and samples are difficult to collect in this heat, because they need to be gathered within a few hours of death.
     so it seems our deer heard may be in for a big hit .

[KentuckyTJ]

Oh crap, sure hate to hear it. We have had some thunderstorms here lately hopefully that will help get the water dispersed and moving.

[buckeye_hunter]

Ohio was hammered 4 years back. It might have been 5 years. A few if my buddies counted up to 30 dead deer on just one small farm. Dozens more on other small farms as well.

[Hoyt]

I read on a Kentucky forum where a guy with farm in S. Illinos. found a dead doe at a water hole. The farm is closely managed for trophy bucks and the guy said it was EHD. Although I don't know of any confirmed cases is Illinos.

[Blue Tick]

We had a few animals on my place in west Texas that had blue tongue before. It is caused by biting flies transferring the disease to the animal. We always found them dead after the fact, has to be a bad way to go for the animal.

[jonsimoneau]

Unfortunately, I think we will see a bad breakout of EHD all across the nation since most places are experiencing bad drought conditions.  This weather is perfect for the disease causing midge to thrive.  Nothing we can do except hope the best for our beloved whitetails.  Although I wish that state game agencies would restrict tag sales during years of bad break outs.

[JPE]

We are just on the verge of full recovery here, so I am really praying that we get passed over this time. Last time it hit I went from seeing 15-20 deer a day ( possibly the same ones over and over in different groups ) to seeing maybe 6-7 in a season.  I was also told it only affects mature deer. Could not find anything to back that up though.    Jim Pyles

[Eric Sprick]

Found this on MDC site from 2007. Seems definately to be drought related. I just want some rain!

http://mdc.mo.gov/blogs/fresh-afield/drought-and-deer-disease

Eric

[Hoyt]

This is not good news...

http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/home/ticker/Hunters-concerned-about-this-years-deer-season-virus-kills-whitetail-population-162659616.html