The design and use of a device to detect deer pedicle growth

The design, construction and use of a device to detect changes in deer pedicle volume are described. The device is highly sensitive for detecting the initiation of pedicle growth. Between-sample differences of 170 mm3 in the pedicle volume of live deer were detected (triplicate measurements) using the detector; these correspond to a change in height of the pedicle of at most 0.67 mm. The within sample coefficient of variation was 1.4%. The pedicle growth detector enables more precise measurements to be obtained for identifying the onset of pedicle development to the nearest week than is currently possible with palpation.