May have seen my first deer with CWD

I just picked up the 2012 - 2013 hunting infomation magazine by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. There have been a few comfirmed cases of it in some of our western counties that border WV since 2009. They have set regulations in that part of the state to deal with it.

All deer killed within the CWD area on certain dates must be brought to a testing station, they give 3 dates for this. There are other regulations concerning transporting deer parts out of that containment area.

While it could be CWD, there is the possibility of old age and worn-down teeth.

I don't think so. It's not an area with much, if any CWD, and that just looks like a typical doe that is nursing a fawn. Takes a bit out of them. She doesn't look pregnant to me either, which means she should have a fawn on the ground. And her ears look too alert and perky.

My not so scientific method of determining age says that her head is too long to be a yearling.

exbiologist said:

that just looks like a typical doe that is nursing a fawn. Takes a bit out of them. She doesn't look pregnant to me either, which means she should have a fawn on the ground. And her ears look too alert and perky.

Click to expand...

I gotta agree. She may be nursing twins or triplets also. Just came back from a Esox excursion in the UP of Michigan where we saw a multitude of deer around the resort and on the shorelines in the chain of lakes we were fishing. Does without fawns were fat and looked like the doe in the second pic, while does with single fawns were trim. Does with twins or triplets looked like the doe in the first pic.

could also be a young deer cutting adult teeth.

For comparison, some net stolen photos:

The deer I've seen with CWD are staggery weak and head down.
That deer looks lean and probably healthy to me. I watched a mature doe for 30 minutes in my front yard last week, temps at 100f, and she looked no better than yours and seemed healthy otherwise, not sick. I'm sure she had a fawn or 2 (or 3).

She looks lean, but not emaciated.