thebrainscoop:

spindlebug:

here’s the weird doe skull i found… i posted a forum question on the natural history museum website so hopefully someone will know what’s up with her there :/

spindlebug submitted:

hello! i was wondering if you might know what was wrong with this doe (roe deer)? i’m nearly sure it didn’t happen post-mortem, because the bone around the damaged areas is knitted weirdly, so would have happened when she was alive. i’ve tried to research deer bone diseases/cancers but i’m not having much luck, apart from lumpy jaw, but this is different :c she was elderly so it might be an age issue? here’s the question i posted on the nhm website, there are more photos attached:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/message/30417#30417

thankyou very much for your time!

I am neither a pathologist nor a vet, so I can’t tell you definitively what happened to this animal, I can only offer conjecture and relay what I’ve seen in my experience. With older animals (and clearly, this was one very old animal), we see a lot of severe tooth wear and gum loss, resulting in dental impactions, abscesses, and infection. A symptom of a standard dental infection is also heavy inflammation and bone density loss. It appears to me that inflammation due to the impaction of plant material most likely caused the gum recession and bone loss, and thus the loss of teeth. Continual grinding on sensitive surfaces furthers the spread of infection. 

Brush and floss your teeth!