Hunter spots elk with twisted, deformed hooves in Colorado. ‘What the heck is this?’
A hunter encountered a cow elk with twisted, deformed hooves in Colorado — and couldn’t quite figure out what might be causing it.
So he shared photos of its overgrown hooves in a Colorado hunting page on Facebook and sought the opinions of his fellow hunters.
“Anyone ever see this?” Tyler McKinley asked in Colorado Elk Hunters Nov. 25. He shared two photos of the misshapen hooves, and his question garnered hundreds of answers ranging from disease, nutrition deficiency and the texture of soil where the elk roamed.
“We walked up to her, and we were, like, what the heck is this?” McKinley told Cowboy State Daily about the experience.
McKinley lives near Pueblo and was hunting elk about 60 miles southwest in an area where he and his family have previously hunted, but “had never seen anything like the elk’s hooves” before, the outlet reported.
Despite the deformity, the creature seemed to be moving around just fine before his dad shot it, he told the outlet.
“Right before he shot her, I thought, ‘Man, she has some big feet,’” McKinley told the outlet.
McKinley asked in the Facebook group whether his fellow hunters thought the meat would be alright to eat. Most said yes, or they joked that it was tainted and they would take it off his hands.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for information, but told Cowboy State Daily it wasn’t an ongoing concern among the state’s elk population.
Several people were familiar with the various causes of such a deformity, including treponema-associated hoof disease commonly found across the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s TAHD, and it’s due to biological conditions and bacteria in the soil. Cattle get foot rot also for the same reasons,” someone suggested. “It’s not dangerous to people and it’s part of the life of an ungulate. It’s a waste of time and resources for CPW to test and investigate. There’s nothing malicious and anyone who’s seen it once can spot it again.”
Hunters who chimed in on the post seemed to universally recognize the condition, though some had different terms for it. “Sleigh hoof” was the most commonly used term to describe what almost looks like an elf’s shoe.
“Slipper feet happens in deer also, diet issues,” someone said.
“Very common (in) moose … it’s called sleigh hoof,” someone else said.
Others said it could be from soft, sandy soil that isn’t effective at wearing hooves down.
“Typically this comes from an animal that does not move much or moves mostly on soft sandy soils also very common in agricultural animals,” someone else said.
Another simply called it “hoof rot.”
“Someone needed a pedicure!” someone joked.
This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Hunter spots elk with twisted, deformed hooves in Colorado. ‘What the heck is this?’."
