Antler Growth Mixed With Stress, Illness or Injury
By Laurie Prasnicki
Is antler growth inhibited by stress, illness or injury? The photos include in this article clearly show the answer to this
question. We didn’t intentionally stress or injure our deer to get an answer to this question, but the stress factor was
a definite learning experience for us.
Last year we left Canyon, one of our breeder bucks, in with the does after the breeding season and he remained
with them the entire summer. During the fawning season I check my doe pens on a regular basis for newborn fawns,
usually morning and night. Even after all the does have fawned I continue to check the health of the fawns, so I
spend quite a bit of time disturbing the deer and they have to get use to it. The pen that Canyon was in happens to
be long and fairly narrow. Every time I entered the pen, he ran to the back of the pen. And when I walked to the back
of the pen, he would run to the front of the pen. This was constant stress on him for several months and it was all
during the peak of the antler-growing season.
Canyon had drop tines the two previous years at age 3 & 4, and when he didn’t get his drop tines last year at age
5, we wondered if we stressed him too much or if he was just over his prime and the drop tines were gone for good.
We decided to keep him another year just to find out. He is 6 years old this year and the drop tines are back. After
the breeding season this year we took him out of his breeding pen and put him back with the mature bucks.
Because he is the oldest buck in the pen and is more aggressive than some of the other mature bucks, he is king of
the pen and has the respect of the other bucks. He seems to enjoy the seniority and is very content this year. And it
definitely shows in his antler growth.
Canyon at age 5 in 2005 Canyon at age 6 - early July 2006
Canyon at age 6 - early July 2006
No drop tines developed after being stressed Drop tines are back after eliminating the stress
At our January meeting, Dr. Harry Jacobson said to get your breeder bucks out of the doe pens and back to their
bachelor buck pen. He said bucks want to be with bucks and if someone locked him in a room full of women for a
year, he would go nuts too! The experience we had with Canyon proves to me that he is absolutely right. During the
rut is another story!
Now, a little about antler growth and injuries. We have a buck that is now 4 years old. Last year at age 3, he had a
very nice typical rack that scored 183". During the rut he was gored in the hindquarter. We moved him to the buck
fawn pen because he was unable to use his hind leg and we knew leaving him in with the mature bucks would mean
eventual death. His injury was more serious than it looked. He stopped eating and became so skinny we thought we
were going to loose him. He gradually improved, but continued to limp. As you can see from the photo from this
year, his antler growth has definitely been affected by the injury. The antler on the opposite side of the injury has
been most affected. We will not sell him this year and will see if his antlers will improve next year. His limp is much
better and he appears to be almost back to normal. I will do a follow up report next year on his antler growth.
#16 Red at age 3 in 2005 before the injury
#16 Red at age 4 - July 2006 after the injury
The health of an animal can also affect antler growth. General Lee, one of our previous breeder bucks, came down
with hoof rot during the month of June back in 2004. I treated him as soon as I noticed he wasn’t using his front foot,
but it stopped his antler growth for a two-week period. At the end of the growing season, his tine lengths were about
2 inches shorter than the previous year and there was swelling on the main beam where the antlers quit growing for
that two-week period. I bring his sheds along to most of the meetings and it is quite interesting to look at the
damage that occurred at the time of the hoof rot. Using AS700 in the feed may have prevented the hoof rot, but
sometimes things like this are unavoidable.
I hoped this article has helped you to understand the importance of eliminating stress from your herd and keeping
your deer healthy and injury free. It was not written to promote my deer in any way, but rather to share knowledge
with fellow deer farmers. Even after 16 years of deer farming we continue to make mistakes, but the important thing
is to learn from our mistakes and share it with others.