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Late Season Doe with a Surprise

doublerack

doublerack

Active Member
I was able to harvest 1 last doe during the urban season Friday. She came in right at sunset with her 2 fawns. I hit her a little high & back, but it took out her liver. As I started to field dress her, I slid my knife in under her udders and squirt! A clear liquid came out. I thought to myself WTF?! No way I punctured the bladder. So I continued. Got everything cut free and pulled out the guts. Then I noticed the bladder. It was still intact. That's when my girlfriend said "what is that?" It was a clear sack with the same clear stuff leaking out. Upon closer inspection we figured out it was the placenta. Inside was a baby fawn about the size of rat. This was a first for me. Anyone else ever encounter this with late season hunts?
 
Double,

Congrats on the hunt, but that's why I can't hunt late season doe. Again, congrats, I couldn't stomach the "surprise".
 
I got twins a few years back on the last day of bow season.Pretty developed.My wife hates it,but I put them in a jar in the trophy room.
 
I too have encountered this. I found a protocol on the web for preparing a fetus for display. I have done about a dozen of these. The bones are stained, the tissue cleared with final embedment in resin. I have it as a paper weight on my desk.
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Ive seen the same thing quite a few times the last couple years while hunting the january antlerless season, most were developed enough to determine the sex
 
thats why i don't hunt late season, don't think I could continue hunting if I had that happen.
 
oh, its not that bad. its apart of the game.
id definately chalk that up as a double
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did he have buttons yet????
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I've seen them (fetus) in all the late season does I've harvested. Almost always twins. They're nothing out of the ordinary.
 
I've seen it a few times. The first time I was helping a landowner manage an overpopulation problem by targeting mature does. Finding triplets inside of my doe got me extra points with the landowner!
 
My buddy shot a doe late season muzzleloader. I seen the clear sack and figured it was a little one. Upon inspection I was right. About the size of a mouse. Pretty neat thing to see. I told him it was his future booner.
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You get used to seeing it if you hunt the late season, it really sucks when they jump out and start running across the field
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Last March I was pulling a road killed doe out of the highway and found that she had triplets. Kinda messy but probably not all bad given the growing doe population.
 
Congrats on the doe! Finding a fetus is interesting, but not too unusual. I have found them in late season deer, and also in elk and antelope. I have an antelope fetus that is so developed it has hair. It's quite an odd case, as the antelope was killed in October.

Finding a fetus isn't anything to worry about. Part of the purpose of killing does is population control, so killing a pregnant doe is actually a good thing. If you kill does early in the season, it is likely they have fawns and are nursing. If you kill them after the rut, they are pregnant, even if that embryo is so small you can't see it. As far myself I'd rather kill them late and pregnant than early and nursing.

So, what did your girlfriend think of it?
 
The muzzleloader season before last I killed a nice big doe and found 3 in her. That mom was fixin to have triplets. But I saved her the labor pains.
 
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