That’s what the folks from G&P told me too. From being around cattle I thought it was an old break or dislocation. It didn’t seem to limit him much.A little hard to tell from that pic. If I had that foot and a knife, I would slice and dice it for you and have a better answer.
That joint is pretty grossly deformed, which would be unusual for foot rot. I also don’t see any swelling of the foot or leg that I would expect for a foot rot infection. We never encountered foot rot in Nebraska elk when we sampled there. We typically see it in environments with significant moisture.
I’m going to guess that round feature above the foot is hard and bony feeling? If yes, that is probably some kind of bony proliferation and most likely indicates a healed traumatic injury. If not, it could be any number of things. But regardless, that joint deformity is almost certainly why the hoof wear is so abnormal. No way he was bearing weight normally on that.
It’s always possible sublethal infections of other pathogens can sometimes result in abnormal hoof growth, though they don’t typically deform a joint like that. The G&F folks would be more familiar with whether there is something currently circulating in the area. But i think it’s probably good old fashioned trauma.
I was just curious because (not for lack of trying) I’m not around too many dead elk.
Did you help our G&P do research down here? I was on the eastern edge of the elk units near Ainsworth. There’s not the biggest bulls in the state, but it’s the easiest unit to draw odds wise. Knowing where the elk are there and after waiting for so many years I just wanted to hunt elk in Nebraska.
