One-eyed buck: unusual biology seen in critters?

[North of 60]

I thought you all may find this interesting and I was curious if others have some pics and stories to share.

Here is a pic of a one eyed whitetail i shot a while back with a .243 and 85 gr Sierra HPBT Gameking. This guy's right orbit is scarred over and is more obvious in the close up. Also have a pic of the euro mount i did on this buck to better see the difference in size of the left and right orbits. Because of the difference in orbit sizes, it seems this guy lost his right eye at a young age and then it scarred over. It is amazing what God's creatures can survive and live with in the wild.

Something else unusual with this same deer was finding two replaceable broadhead blades (look like slick tricks) in the muscle right behind a shoulder outside of the rib cage while de-boning and removing fascia.

 

[The Harbor Master]

Wow that's interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that the actual skull would be shaped different where it lost an eye. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Pescetism]

Don't know that large abscesses are unusual, as I've seen about 5 in 15 years, but this is the largest I've ever seen.

 

[Slickhill]

My wife killed an ancient old buck a few years ago. When I skinned him it was apparent he was a survivor.
His left front leg had been broken at some point, grew back together a little shorter due to the ends of the bone not being set and had a big lump of bone where it had knit back. He’d been shot through the top of the shoulder with an arrow and the arrow stopped when it struck one of the process on top of the spine. The process had broken and healed leaned over at a 30deg angle, his left backstrap was curved around it. The top of his right scapula had a big knot of healed bone over the broadhead hole. His left ribcage showed where three ribs had been smashed by something and grew back all as one intermingled mass of bone about the size of a saucer.
We didn’t send a tooth off to be aged but judging from the neighbors sightings and the taxidermist’s tooth chart we guessed him at 9. And he was chasing does and huge bodied for the area so more or less healthy but I bet he had some creaks and moans when he got out of bed. Resilient creatures.

 

[doc holiday13]

guy who beetled my last skull showed me a buck he was cleaning and during cleaning he found a broadhead lodged behind one of the eyes. It ruined the eye and the broadhead was calcified over partially so it had been in there for at least a year or two

 

[mi650]

I had trail cam pics of this doe from a few days before this. Guessing a coyote almost got her. I got her instead, opening w/e of muzzle loader season.

And my wife found this broadhead while we were butchering, buried in the shoulder of the pictured buck. It was surrounded by scar tissue, figure it had been there a couple years.

I've had a couple with broken legs that I've shot.

One time my son was out with me, and we heard a weird noise, starting maybe a 1/4 mile away. It was pretty frequent, every couple seconds, and getting closer. Then it slowed down some, but kept getting closer. Finally we spotted a doe coming towards us, and she was sneezing!! I think she must've gotten stung while getting into someone's pile of apples.

 

[EastHumboldt]

One eye, and two broad heads… That poor bastard! They sure are tough critters.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

At my place here in SW Colorado, this dropped ears doe showed up the other day. Seen here twice now.

 

[Erict]

My 2019 MT mule deer buck - pretty sure it was blind in this eye. Look at the divots in the cornea, plus the more obvious wound.