Twins


horst

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Last week dad shot a nice sized doe.Me and my brother went to help him drag her out and since I convienently forgot my knife my brother was going to gut her.

He made his cuts then went to split the hitch, He popped the knife trough the hitch and fluid started coming out, didnt think much of it at first figuring he had hit the bladder or something.But the fluid looked funny, it was clear and just kept running.I told him to stop for a minute, lifted the intestines back out of the way and found the doe was carrying twins:(

Weve gutted literally hundreds of deer over the years this late in the season and never found onethis far along before, she must have been bred way earlier then most of them.They were about 2 inches long, had started to form legs, and were in a clear sack, they both had kind of a yolk around them, a clear jelly like fluid.

I realize most ofthe older does are in fact pregnant right now but somehow this seemed kinda messed up.Anyone else ever run into this?

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Yes Chris, sure have. Killed a doe around the close of our season back about 6 years ago, and she had twins.

My oldest daughter(11) told me on the way to school the other day that a kid in her class had a little brother who killed a doe that had twins. From what she said, they put them in a jar and took them to school. My daughter said it was pretty cool, that they were more developed than she expected.

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It really happens rather frequently here in Arkansas, usually with the late bowhunters.

All of our other seasons are pretty much closed in Dec. but our archery season runs all the way through the last of Feb.

If you figure a doe is bred early in Oct. the fetus is already along 151 days by the end of Feb.

I think the gestation rate is 200 days, so sometimes the fetus is almost fawn looking by the time the doe is taken.

Our rut here is around the middle of Nov. so most does aren't quite that far along.

I think that around here if a person needs to thin the herd, a late mature doe is the way to do it, but if meat is all that is needed, it would be better to take a young doe that hasn't been bred.

I think with that being said, most hunters around here probably just don't check while field dressing, or they would rather just not know.

....popgun

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Fairly common here in Nebraska to get a late season kill with babies. 3 of the 5 does we killed this year were pregnant with twins. Kinda of the point of the late season really , get them after they have been bred and take out the babies as well as the parent taking out 2 or 3 deer instead of 1. Typically a doe in january is about two months into her 6-7 month gestation thats about the same as the end of the first trimester of humans.

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I think with that being said, most hunters around here probably just don't check while field dressing, or they would rather just not know.

....popgun

Good point popgun, if he hadnt hit the sack we probably wouldnt have paid much attention.Dont know how apparent it woulda been after the guts were out lying on the ground:confused:

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Good point popgun, if he hadnt hit the sack we probably wouldnt have paid much attention.Dont know how apparent it woulda been after the guts were out lying on the ground:confused:

Popgun is right here. Dont typically look for that when field dressing does here, bet it is overlooked ferequently.

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