Whats on her neck?
 

What does she have on her neck. I thought at first the hair was scraped off, then I enlarged the pic and its some kind of growth the size of a orange. It sure is disgusting looking what ever it is.

It is called a fibroma (sic) and shouldn’t be any problem at all. Many deer get them and they amount to nothing more then what it is for a person to get a wart. They have no affect on the meat or muscle tissue and are only on the skin. Once the hide is removed there is no evidence of the fibroma.

Frequently deer will get a few of them around the legs, neck or head. Most deer will fully recover from them and eventually they will disappear and you will never know the deer once had them.

They can get a large as basketballs though in extreme cases and sometimes they will even grow on the face in a manner that prevents the deer from being able to see or even eat. What that happens it can be fatal, but in all of my years I have never seen one that bad and only ever heard of a couple being that bad.

It isn’t certain, that I am aware of, as to what causes them but some professionals think it might be insect bites since they always seem to start during the summer and then extend into the fall. Usually by early to mid winter there is no trace of the fibroma, so it seems they clear up during the colder weather.

Dick Bodenhorn

R.S.B:
Great information,,,i for one would have had 2nd thoughts about butchering a deer with a weird growth on it!
Thanks

Thank you for the info R.S.B. Its nice to know she has a good chance to be around for hunting season. With any luck she might lead a mature buck into my treestand area this bow season.

Many hunters who harvest a deer with fibroma growths call to get a permit for another deer. We will issue a permit for another deer, if they insist they can’t eat that one, but they have to give up all parts of the deer they already harvested, including the antlers if it is a buck.

Some hunters decide to keep their deer once they learn what the growths really are, but we still get one once in a while that want a permit for another deer. I will issue them the permit but I am not going to waste the deer they are surrendering so I have butchered and eaten several deer with fibroma over the years. I have even legally harvested a couple that had a few fibroma warts on them and we always ate them too.

I have seen a couple of deer with some very large fibromas (basketball size) that eventually cleared up and totally went away over a few months.

Dick Bodenhorn

Very interesting. I saw one doe a couple of years ago here in MA during late summer who's neck was covered in very large ones...
Was curious as to what they were... R.S.B.