I am also red green color blind and hunt quite a bit by myself. There are varying degrees of the color blindness and I am lucky to be less worse than others. But my brother is less lucky than me and he almost always needs help.
For myself I have a hard time in green growth areas, as I am sure you do also. I make sure that I get a really great pinpoint on where the shot took place and the last place I saw the animal go.
I start tracking from the shot location and make sure I end up at the point I last saw the animal. Unless you are in a high traffic area, the fresh running tracks are usually easy to follow (unless very rocky or the bull is trying to follow the cows). In those instances, I really slow down and look for any tracks that break out of the herd or the slightest disturbance of rocks and logs. You may take the wrong track from time to time, but they usually cross something at some point and time that I can see blood on. For example when the cross a newly fallen aspen. If ther isn't blood on it, I'll mark that tree and go back to where I left the original trail and start the process over on a different varient trail.
In the example of the bull following other elk, if those elk aren't injured and they break from the heard, their trail usually comes back to the herd at some point within a hundred yards. Bulls that are injured, when they leave the trail of the rest of the herd, they almost never rejoin the main tracks and will tend to go slightly down hill while traveling in the same direction of the herd.
I've been fortunate enough to never lose and animal, but I have made many, many circles from where I loose a track until I've picked it up again. Just like any other time, make sure you mark the last spot that you know 100% you were on the right trail and work from there.
I'm not sure this will help you but I works for me. Good Luck
PY