RE: What did this deer die from?
When you dressed him, did you find any food in his stomach, intestines, or whatnot? If not, he could have just as easy had an infection in this throat from maybe eating something in the dirt that cut it, it got infected, swolen and all that. No eating would definately hurt his health, not that he died of starvation, I doubt that. But with no food, and perhaps no water,the stress on the heart, and maybe the brain, would be pretty bad. Just my take, you never know.