I was having a conversation yesterday with a couple of hunters. We got on the subject of animals that sweat. They said a deer cannot sweat. I told them that I had seen a doe come in during the rut with 6 bucks on her. She looked liked she was soaking wet, so I just took it as being sweat. Does anybody have the answer.
thanks, Barry

I would think that deer sweat, Don't know for sure. Did your friends give you any reasons on why they think that deer don't sweat?

I finished a book recently that was called "The deer hunters Encyclopedia" by L.L. Lee Rue. I wouldn't recommend reading it but a question of that nature might be answered (or not) by him. The book was about questions he has answered over the years. For some reason there were questions in there that he would answer with "I don't know". I can see that happening in a conversation but not in print.

I just looked at the index and it's not mentioned. You could try his site.

Well, I will take a guess. After thinking about it we see deer pant when they have been running. Which is how dogs also cool themselves. So I would thing if they don't sweat they cool themselves by panting. If not then they sweat. Every mammal has to have a way to cool themselves. Interesting, I never really thought about it.

My guess is that they don't sweat as tribal says. Dog's don't have sweat glands hence they pant and shead a lot of hair. Sweat is for the full purpose of cooling and the fact that deer have a body full of hair there isn't the desired amount of evaporation to cool the body of the deer. The hair would retain too much. I will check with my hunting bud who is a prof at a school of vets and get back with you.

I would think they do sweat. I always thought that pigs, hipo's and a few others were the only animals that didn't sweat. That is why they have to cool themselves with mud or in water. I am not sure though, what do I know anyway....

Dogs actually do sweat through their pads but they can't do enough of it to loose heat, thus the panting. In fact I doubt they get any additional cooling from the sweat glands, I think it is more of a scent thing than anything. I actually had a dog that I swear used to have sweaty armpits but I know that shouldn't be possible.

horses sweat and mouth breath, cows sweat, although not enarly as much as horses, and mouth breath to loose heat.. All depends on the animal and how much heat they can get ride of via persperation. I would think deer could sweat but I am not sure about it... Also, horses and cattle both shed copius amounts of hair every spring and put it back on.