Even though this was a US Wildlife Refudge Abby was instructed that if any of the herds came down sick they were to notify MDC (Missouri Department of Conservation ) The herds had been here for about a month and there was so much work to be done. Abby ordered a bunch of tranquize darts. The whole staff went to the white tail deer part of the refudge and traquilized the ones they found. The doctor with the group checked them ou then the park ramgers tagged the deer. So far things seemed to be alright.
They visited the reindeer population and repeated the action and they were alright. They preceded to the mule deer population and had the same results. They knew there would be staglings so they were told if they saw one to go ahead and do the same thing with the exception that two rangers work together and would load the animal up in the back of their truck and bring the animal to see the doctor at his office.
They headed for the bigger game animals and noticed a moose that was in bad shape. the doctor asked Abby if she knew what was wrong with him. She told him if it was an Elk she would think it was hoof disease. He told her that was exactly what was wrong and they might as well put it out of his missery so they shot and killed it then they sawed off his affected hooves and placed them into a plastic bag and placed them in a cooler with dry ice and shipped them to the the USDA National Animal Disease Center to be tested and either confirmed or not.