Comments on: Foundering: Long Hooves On White-Tailed Deer

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:31:30 +0000

There’s a white-tailed doe in my back yard right now with 4 foundered hooves. I took movies of her walking. Never saw anything like it before.

By: Ronny Summerlin

Ronny Summerlin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:46:31 +0000

I shot a 7 point buck this deer season that had all 4 feet that had abnormally long hoofs. His horns were on the way down, as he aged at 7 to 8 yrs old. The buck was very skinny and in bad shape.

By: John

John — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:57:13 +0000

I shot a doe this past gun season that had long toes on only one foot. She had been walking with a very bad limp as I thought she was injured and decided to harvest her. On examination of her limp leg I discovered that her hoove had been injured some time ago and since then healed up.

By: Shasta

Shasta — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:50:48 +0000

Is it only does that are supposed to “founder”? I’ve never heard of it before. I was just reading to do a report on deer management and it was funny how I came across this article because my uncle shot a black tailed buck this last deer season in Northern California on our private property. The hooves on that deer were very long also, but I dont think that they curled like that. I thought it was because of genetics, but I guess not.

By: John W.

John W. — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:07:08 +0000

The word “founder” is actually the older term. “Flounder” was a modification of the former. Foundering is a condition that any person familiar with horses knows (and probably winces at the thought of). Horses and similar animals can present malformations of the hoof similar to what is seen in your photos. This condition, if allowed to progress (it is difficult to manage), is typically cause for humane euthanizaiton. The likely reason any deer with this problem would look unhealthy is because they would be unable to move well, which I’m assuming would mean that they would have problems accessing food/competing for resources.