Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Saw something strange in a deer I shot tonight

Actually, it never went over 41 that day, lol.

Opposite issue coming up, though....highs around 20 for Thurs/Fri. Trying to decide if I want to do the cutting tomorrow evening after work, or wait till it goes to the upper 30's and softens up again on Saturday.

I'd prefer to let her hang a bit longer. I have a spare fridge out in the shed. Might take her down to quarters and stuff them in there to ride out the cold spell. Shouldn't freeze in there if I shut the fridge and leave it turned off, I'd think.

Good luck with it, let us know how it turns out.

Their ideas might be interesting.

Jeff, do you salt the ice any? Also, do you let the meat sit in the ice water or keep the meat above the water, please. Thanks, jag.

Processed the deer last night into straps, loins, roasts and trim meat to be ground later.

Nothing unusual noted in the meat. No smell, nothing visually amiss.

I shot this one with a 300WSM with a 180gr Nosler Partition moving out fairly quick. I pulled the hide and decided it was worth getting a picture.

Not that this is surprising in the least for a Partition, but this is why I shoot them....

It should be ok

If one still has any concerns, I'd suggest contacting a large animal vet. Over time, they've probably seen it all.

If no satisfaction there, maybe a USDA inspector at a kill plant.

There should be someone about familiar with the specifics.

I'm good with everything at this point.

Talking to the Game Commission biologist, he told me that the area I'm in is monitored for disease in the deer herd. Nothing has been found to date, including this year. He couldn't tell me exactly what caused what I saw, but said there is nothing he's aware of that would make the deer unfit for consumption, unless I saw anything out of the ordinary when processing the meat.

I observed nothing consistent with any published photos of diseased deer with things like EHD, CWD, or bovine TB. No smell to the meat, no puss, no lesions. Only thing wrong with her was the hole in her lungs my bullet made, and all that connective tissue.

The biologist said from speaking to the vet they work with, that it may be a deer that had or recovered from pneumonia, but said the deer would be in physically worse condition than I described. She had over 1/2" of fat on her hind quarters/back (where deer store their thick fat deposits), tons of abdominal cavity fat, and was generally a very healthy looking deer over all.

So...she's processed, vacuum-packed, and packed into my freezer.

we have a USDA inspected butcher shop in central PA. We see this occasionally in pigs and beef. It comes from pneumonia at some point in there lives. Inspectors make us trim the inside of the ribs and good to go. Seems like some animals do fine with it and some are just not as good a specimen as they should have been.

Barry

I have harvested more whitetails than most on average 10 - 20 annually and have noticed several times that the lungs came out in pieces and had to be removed from the rib cage.

I don't open the sternum on a whitetail preferring to keep the hair flying to a minimum during the skinning and butchering process. I have never noticed the connecting tissue difference only that the lungs and heart upon cutting the esophagus and aorta did not just peal out in one piece.

All have been used as acceptable table fare.

I would not worry in the slightest.

Good luck with the rest of the season.

Bob