Possible Piebald / Three Legged Deer / No Right Back Leg / White Nose / Possible Malformed Right Back Leg With Hoof (1 of 2) - Photograph

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This is 1 of 2 posts of photographs that I took this week.

Dec 31, 2021 update: per a response from https://www.nyantler-outdoors.com, this is not a piebald deer.

I saw this deer in my yard and got my camera when I realized it appeared to have a partially missing back right leg. I assumed it had been hit by a car or attacked by coyotes but survived the injury it had sustained.

However, as I watched the deer walking, it looked like it was attempting to extend its back right leg as if it had a normal length leg there. But the leg, which only extended a few inches past the elbow joint, was too short to touch the ground. Another feature of the deer seemed unusual: it had what looked like a white ring of fur around the base of its nose.

Upon closer examination of my photographs, it almost looks like the deer actually has an ankle and hoof on the back right leg when it is walking (i.e. extending the legs in motion), but that hoof is retracted inward when the deer is standing eating. So it seems like this could be a malformed right back leg, not an injury as I initially thought.

I did some Internet searching, and it is possible this is a piebald deer.

https://www.nyantler-outdoors.com/piebald-deer.html

Any comments assisting in identification of what might be going on with this deer are appreciated. I don’t know when I will see this deer again, because deer typically range over a large territory.