A Waste of Good Venison:


popgun

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What a waste of good deer meat:

I was reading another board recently and one of the guys was telling about his experiences.

He said that on more than one occasion he had dumped a deer after killing it because he noticed a grub-like worm crawling out of the deer’s nose.

One taxidermist also mentioned this occurrence just before putting a new cape into the chill-box.

I am sure that dogdoc would be able to add a lot more to this conversation if he is coaxed.

Although a large grub-worm crawling out of your dream bucks’ nose sounds gross, it is no reason to dump the deer.

It is called a Nasal Bot Worm.

From what I understand it is a fly that lays a sack on the deer’s moist nose. The deer licks its nose and breaks the sack. The small larvae crawl up into the nostril and mature into the worm. Then the worm crawls out and falls to the ground and develops further into a fly. Then the process starts all over again.

The reason I am mentioning this is because this occurrence is harmless to the deer as well as humans. It is a part of the life cycle, and I hate to hear of a dumped deer.

Maybe dogdoc can tell us some other things to look for, that would keep a hunter from making a mistake and dumping a perfectly good deer.

I don’t want to put you on the spot dogdoc, but how about it? Can you tell us a little about tumors, cysts, and such, that we should watch for?

Discussions are a little slow now anyway.

…..popgun

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Guest gfourhunter

Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

last year i shot a 6 point and i noticed a bad smell. the deer had been shot at least a week befor in the hind and in the leg. the deers eyes were glazed over and infected. the deer was laying in his death bed when i jumped him up. im glad i put him out of his pain but to bad he was a waist of meat. nothing i could do. i couldn't go feed that to my kids.

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

That is too bad--that was a waste of some good meat. Nose bots are very common and do not present any danger to eating the meat!

There are a few things that would keep me from eating the meat. One would be a systemic infection. This could be from an injury like gfourhunter described. When I say systemic I mean that the infection, which started locally, and spread to other parts of the body thru the blood system. A deer suffering from a systemic infection will probably act weak and depending on how long the deer has had the infection will probably look thin and undernourished. There have been some cases of bovine TB discovered in deer but is very rare in the wild population.

As far as tumors--if it was a localized growth or tumor I would just trim that portion out and eat the rest of the meat. Some deer will get tumors or cyst and if the body has walled these cysts off and the rest of the deer looked normal I would not have any problem eating the meat. But if I did see a tumor I would inspect the lymph nodes, liver, and lungs. If I saw enlarged swollen lymph nodes over the entire body I would not eat the meat. If I saw growths or tumors in the liver or lungs I would pass also.

If I lived in an area with CWD I would recommend just deboning the meat and avoid cutting thru any bones (to avoid the marrow) and cutting thru the spine.

todd

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

I had a doe bed up right in the farm yard a couple winters ago...seems it had been stuck with an arrow and got infected. That doe just plain smelled rotton!!! It died right in the yard, the ground was froze and we had a foot of snow,so I pulled it way down to the creek and the cyotes or wolves ate it

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

[ QUOTE ]

last year i shot a 6 point and i noticed a bad smell. the deer had been shot at least a week befor in the hind and in the leg. the deers eyes were glazed over and infected. the deer was laying in his death bed when i jumped him up. im glad i put him out of his pain but to bad he was a waist of meat. nothing i could do. i couldn't go feed that to my kids.

[/ QUOTE ]

Had the same thing on a Buck I shot this past season. Someone shot the buck in the hindquarter, with a .22 LR, and that portion was starting to become infected. I disgarded that quarter and kept the rest as it was okay.

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

Yep, I've heard of the Bot fly doing that. One day I actually watched a doe try to rid herself of bot flies I think. She layed down and continually scratched her nose with her hind hoof, and was constantly sneezing. Weird.

Anyway, yeah, that sounds like a waste of good meat. Unless the meat is discolored or smelly, I eat it.

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

Thanks for the answers dogdoc, and for the comments and replies guys.

This site can be an amazing source of useful information as well as an entertaining site to visit and see everyones trophies.

I figure the more we can help to educate new or uninformed hunters, the less likely they will be to make some mistakes.

Proves once again how good this site really is.

.....popgun

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

popgun I dug these articles out for those that want to read more about nasal bots and deer warts from a whitetail biologist.

This one is on "Nasal Bots"

http://www.mdwfp.com/wildlifeissues/articles.asp?vol=9&article=138

The next one is on "Deer Warts"

http://www.mdwfp.com/wildlifeissues/articles.asp?vol=8&article=115

There's probably some people on here that just don't know so there it is for you. wink.gif

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

Thanks for this post. We have the TB in our area that dogdoc referred to, so I imagine that most hunters would discard any deer that looks weird. I totally agree with all the replies though, I think I know what is bad and what isn't. I had though stopped taking any internal organs home ( like Heart), just to be safe.

too_pointer

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

[ QUOTE ]

I shot a deer a few years ago, the butcher said it was shot with a bow earlier in the season. He said he did need to throw some of the meat away. Unfortunately I never seen this side due to the drag marks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Back during our deer season in 2003; I had to put a Doe down that had an arrow sticking out of her back. The arrow was 8" deep between the aorta & spinal cord. I went ahead and taged her checked her in and when I skinned her she was all infected inside. So I buried her. My Brother-In-Law a Vet. said she was dying anyway, so I did good to put her down. MADE ME SICK! frown.gif

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

The first year we moved into our house, the nieghbors(jerks) came onto our property and surrounded a doe and shot while we were eating Thanksgiving dinner. Well after throwing them off with "their" deer we went to get the heart/liver/kidneys for eating, they are delicious! Well in the gut pile in our woods we got the heart and kidneys but the liver had these small, clearish cysts on them so we left the liver. On another note, the nose bot worm things sound just like the warbles that squirrels get. In the beginning of squirrel season, until the first major frost, some of the squirrels have warbles which are the larva living in/under the skin and when matured, they crawl out. It is pretty gross and even though the meat may be fine, I cut the meat off that is around that area even though the larva doesn't touch the meat.

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Re: A Waste of Good Venison:

Although I agree that the nose bot sounds a bit harmless, I wouldn't question those who chose not to eat the meat of deer that were previously wounded, cysts, growths, etc.... UNLESS it became a common reoccurance.

In central MD, there are simply too many deer with Man being their only predator. Killing one, with the intent of utilizing the meat, only to discover abnormalities inside that made the hunter question the safety of the meat is not a big deal to me. Nothing in nature goes to waste. Fox, buzzard, etc will eat well. Be sure to tag it up properly, report it, and go hunt another one.

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