[outdoorsman43]

I believe the "Blue Tongue" disease from a couple of years ago wiped out a lot of the deer herd in eastern Kentucky. Pike County, Knott County, Floyd County, Martin County, Magoffin County, Breathitt County, Johnson County, a few other counties, and surrounding areas were greatly hurt by the disease. Not many people know about this disease. If you spent a lot of time in the field a couple of years ago, you probably seen some dead deer bodies. This was the summer when the drought hit the EKY area and water levels were drastically low. Creeks were dried up and the only water source the deer had was stagnant water. If I'm not mistaken, flies laid their eggs in this stagnant water that the deer drank of. The water with these fly eggs in it was contaminated with this "disease".

I also heard there was some kind of fly, bug, or parasite that bit the deer that gave them this disease. The term "Blue Tongue" literally comes from the deer's tongue that turns blue. If I'm not mistaken, the disease takes over the deers main organs and shuts them down within 48 hours. The eyes swell up and the tongue of the deer turns blue. It's a wild and crazy disease. I witnessed a few deer bodies that had passed on from suffering this disease.

I think we are still seeing the results of that disease from two years ago.