Think someone shot our steer, has a hole in shoulder he’s dead.

[Huntet02]

I assumed Hunter02 cut the hide to show the suspected bullet entry. I'd also say it would be pretty hard to hit lungs that high up and forward, depending on angle I suppose.

A couple of weeks ago the neighbours had a deer shot and left in their yard while they were away. There was a tuft of hair and a pool of blood, and the deer made it about 15 yards from that before dying. Pinky sized entrance wound behind the shoulder. They called the CO and he opened up the buck to find a piece of broken deer antler inside that nicked the heart. Strange things happen.

U know that's what my hayman said he said Rutt season this yr in kS is like nothing he's ever seen...... and he does hunting tours .

 

[Huntet02]

Yup, sure does to me too. Can't hardly believe that it's a gunshot with that. SC Kansas... what kind of wild critters you got running down there? Rough woods in the pasture? Maybe the bull got rowdy with him, got underneath him and wrangled him up into a tree branch, which ran a sharp broken off branch into him then? Pretty unusual shape of abrasion. However, if that punctured a lung as you suggested, that'd allow him to sidle injured to over by the fence, lay down, and eventually expire...................

No we never cut into him hubby wouldn't let me try to dig bullet out he was too swelled was afraid guts would go everywhere then we'd have never gotten him off our property into trailer. we found him 1.5 days ( between time I last saw him) just like that.

 

[ismith]

While it's possible the abrasion was caused by bloating, I've seen alot of bloated critters with gunshot wounds and have never seen it look like that.

 

[ccr]

@wbvs58

Be interested in what Ken thinks about this.

 

[G2-]

This steer and 1 bull were penned 250 yards from our house in pasture. So if this was a bullet - we are all lucky we weren't shot.
Assuming the skin abrasions are from bloating stretch- hole the size of my pinkie in lower up/ down abrasion -if u enlarge pic it's circled. It had bubbly looking stuff coming out of it - which I think means a lung shot.
Unbelievable night— sheriff and animal patrol said nothing we they can do unless I saw someone shoot him or had a bullet to identify the gun.

Just catching up to this. N. Central Oklahoma had a rash of cattle shot recently. I never heard if they caught anyone.

 

[Lisagrantb]

We had a rash of shootings about 10 years ago and I can't remember the name but a special investigator came out and investigated. Crimes to livestock was all he did. Maybe it was someone from the beef or cattlemens association. The local popo basically said nothing they could do.

 

[wbvs58]

@wbvs58

Be interested in what Ken thinks about this.

I've been sitting on sideline with this. My feeling is the abrasions were associated with the injury and I am sceptical about a bullet. It would have been nice to have skinned the shoulder and follow any tract. A bullet would have done a bit of bone damage as well that you might have been able to pick up on. It would have been safe to cut into that area without disturbing the guts. A little dissection would have been nice but without that now we can only speculate.

Ken

 

[M.Magis]

I've seen loads of dead bloated animals, the tearing of the skin isn't normal unless there are some sort of cuts/abrasions beforehand. Any sort of metal be could have injured himself on? I still would run a metal detector over him, its very unlikely thats a bullet wound. If there's something in the pen that injured him, it could also happen to any others. Probably a freak accident, but usually best to eliminate any many chances as you can.

 

[Nick Wagner]

No blood from that lesion...it's postmortem skin stretching/tearing...that animal's been dead quite a while. Bubbling is from bacterial putrefaction, not a lung shot.
I'd say 999 to 1 likelihood that it's not a gunshot wound.
Rest easy and feel better about your fellow man. But you might look at the remaining animal a little more closely/often for any signs of disease.

Assuming the wound allowed the skin to tear from bloating, could that happen in 36 hours this time of year? I wouldn't think so. It's hard to tell from the picture but bloating appears minimal, just as I'd expect in cooler weather. A second observation and anyone can correct me, but that wound is awful high on the shoulder to have hit a lung.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Get a coat hanger, and follow the bullet trajectory, you can sometime feel the bullet, if was truly shot.

 

[Nick Wagner]

That's what they do when they bloat we think

You have an interesting case here. It is unusual for an animal to die sitting up like he is, not unheard of, just not common. It appears the skin tore with the puncture wound providing the weak point, I have never seen the skin split like that and think it unlikely that bloating caused the the skin to stretch enough to explain it, not in 36 hours anyway. Swelling from bloat is temperature dependent, in cooler weather they swell up fairly slow over multiple days. In your picture swelling appears minimal and normal for this time of year so I discount the theory that bloating caused the skin to tear. Skin will open up like that if cut, sorry, I know that leads down another worrisome path, but that's what it looks like to me.

 

[Lucky_P]

I'm a retired veterinary pathologist. Spent the better part of 34 years performing necropsies on dead animals - mostly food animals - in order to figure out (when we could) why they died. I've seen and dismantled thousands of bloated, decomposing cattle. Post-mortem bloating on the animal pictured is pretty advanced.
Without examination beyond what was (not) performed on this animal all any of us can do is guess.
My guess is no gunshot wound...

 

[sstterry]

Trust Lucky_P. He knows his stuff.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I was going to post what Lucky_P did but not my place. And Ken was/is a vet, so he has been tremendous help on these boards. We sure appreciate their input.

 

[alacowman1]

could the bull he was running with, been bullying him around,and shoved him into something?

 

[callmefence]

Black and unarmed....I bet the cops shot him.

 

[Lucky_P]

Was this steer adequately vaccinated against blackleg/malignant edema?
Still remember seeing about 10 big, beautifully marbled feedlot steers... almost finished... dead of blackleg. Guy feeding them said he hadn't vaccinated, "because it's so hard on them."
Not nearly as hard as dying...

 

[Buck Randall]

Was this steer adequately vaccinated against blackleg/malignant edema?
Still remember seeing about 10 big, beautifully marbled feedlot steers... almost finished... dead of blackleg. Guy feeding them said he hadn't vaccinated, "because it's so hard on them."
Not nearly as hard as dying...

That's right up there with, "I didn't vaccinate because I never had a problem." Nobody ever has a problem until they do.

 

[Nesikep]

that sucks whatever the cause

I was thinking about things that could have cause anything remotely close to that damage.. Only thing that comes to my mind would be broadpoints on a bow, it wouldn't make that big an X, but maybe with a starting point it could stretch that way?
Evidently the arrow would have been removed

 

[Huntet02]

I've been sitting on sideline with this. My feeling is the abrasions were associated with the injury and I am sceptical about a bullet. It would have been nice to have skinned the shoulder and follow any tract. A bullet would have done a bit of bone damage as well that you might have been able to pick up on. It would have been safe to cut into that area without disturbing the guts. A little dissection would have been nice but without that now we can only speculate.

Ken

Its tremendous to have our tragedy doubted; we've never had this happen before we were a little shocked - awful that it wasn't dissected to your liking