Whitetail: Black spots on lungs?

[ColoradoArchery]

I shot a small button buck yesterday with my bow up here in eastern CT. when I opened him up he had the weirdest looking lungs...the tissue was covered in small black spots. The deer itself was very healthy, all other organs looked fine, pelt was normal and the deer had no other noticeable problems. Any thoughts?? Thanks and good hunting!

[Nick Roehl]

I am guessing it was either trauma from being shot or some kind of lung disease like pneumonia.

[ColoradoArchery]

Yes, pneumonia was one of the things that first came to mind, but it's too extensive for pneumonia. It's not TB cause that creates more lesions than hemorages. I guess it could possibly be trauma, but I didn't hit him in the lungs, I may have hit the pulmonary artery and that caused all the clotting in the lung tissue. But hopefully this picture shows up below. The Biologist is coming out to look at it today. Thanks.

Black Spots on Deer Lungs

Photo 1.GIF (116.77 KiB) Viewed 519 times

[mvd]

I also had just killed a young buck, about 1 1/2 yrs old, and it had black spots on the lungs. There were around the size of a nickly to a quarter. Right now based on what I'm reading it sounds like it might be caused by trama. I did hit the lungs with an arrow...

[Nick Roehl]

Well let us all know what you figure out on this, it will be interesting to know. I hear this question about black spots on lungs every season. It will be nice to get it figured out by a professional.

[ColoradoArchery]

I sent in the pictures and information to the Biologist and they had never seen it, so we are sending it to the UCONN Head Pathologist to see what he says. I'll let ya'll know.

[ironhead]

Now THATS strange. I have never seen anything like it.

[ColoradoArchery]

I just got an email from the biology professor at UCONN... he called it "a shower of hemorrhage secondary to the arrow trauma or "hunting pulmonary hemorrhage collateral lesion of shock"...haha. He said that he thought it hit a main artery to/from the lungs and that it caused those little lesions of blood pooling in the pluera of the lungs. Either way the meats in the freezer, glad I didn't have to throw it out.

[mvd]

That's good to hear, thanks for the update.

[Nick Roehl]

That's what I was leaning towards, but good to know for the future, and glad you got some meat for the freezer!