In profile and movement, she looked normal in body, legs, shoulders, neckline … but oh the head, swollen and misshapen on the left side with a lumpy growth that wrapped from jawbone to between the eyes, as if some giant leech had burrowed under the skin and latched onto her face.

When she finally turned to look at me, it was with one clear eye and one obscured by a furry half-mask, like “Phantom of the Opera.”

So what ails this doe?

Several deer experts with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources all came to the same grim diagnosis: This appears to be an osteochondroma or osteosarcoma –a bone tumor, perhaps cancerous.

Betsy Bloom/Daily News photos

It makes this doe a rare creature among her kind, said Brian Roell, a DNR wildlife biologist in the Marquette office. While the DNR Wildlife Disease Laboratory has seen such cases in deer in the past, they are few and far between.

The prognosis was dismal — this condition is ultimately fatal. As the disease progresses, it eats into bone, which eventually disables the deer. This one likely already was doing its chewing on the unaffected right side, said Chad Stewart, a deer biologist with the DNR in Lansing. He’s seen a skull the state wildlife pathologist has in which the tumor had penetrated the sinuses.

But he was surprised at the doe’s condition, saying after seeing the photos, “she looks in great shape” but for the tumors.

“The fact she’s in such good shape is a testament to white-tailed deer resilience,” he said.

Disease usually is one of the lesser causes of mortality in white-tailed deer, though that can vary depending on the contagion, he said. Some parts of lower Michigan have outbreaks of epizootic hemorrhagic disease — a virus transmitted by biting midges — that may claim 30% to 50% of the affected herd in a matter of months, Stewart said. Chronic wasting disease so far has not been as much of a factor in Michigan, though it ultimately is considered lethal.

But disease in general ranks behind hunting, predation and vehicle strikes in deer deaths, he said. And this type of tumor is not contagious, so “an extremely rare event,” Stewart said.

The owner of the property where the doe had been seen said she was about 8 to 10 years old, the matriarch of the visiting yard herd –and had become a favorite.

When the facial growths progressed in recent weeks, the homeowner tried putting out softer foods. Still, the lumps became infected; Roell said that can happen if the animal begins pawing at the tumors.

“She was really losing weight, as she had a hard time chewing, and drinking water was also something she could not do,” the homeowner said.

The doe has gone missing since Dec. 10, the homeowner said, adding her fawn of the year has remained with four does thought to be siblings from the matriarch.

“I’m afraid she has gone off to die,” the homeowner said.

While this could be viewed as a sad outcome, the doe did best the odds by reaching 8 to 10, considering 15 is considered ancient for white-tailed deer, according to the DNR.

In light of her condition only a month ago, the doe obviously had a good nearby food source and a “safe space” close to the homes on Six Mile Lake Road that could keep predators at bay while she coped with the advancing disease, said Stewart, who did not know when commenting of the most recent reports on the doe’s fate.

“She’s clearly living the best life she can,” Stewart said, “given the hand she’s been dealt.”

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com