Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Gangrene in a deer

I shot a nice (for us) buck Saturday. When I went to recover him, I noticed some wounds and green puss in them. Not knowing the extent, we went to remove the hide and found multiple other wounds, mostly healed, but more pockets of puss. I don't think, with the extent of the gangrene, it is fit to eat.

We are postulating that these are fighting wounds...I saw nothing that says arrow or bullet. His antler were broken up, so he seems like a fighter. Also, oddly enough, his hooves were longer than normal and curved on the ends, and pretty chewed up.

We have plenty of venison, but it is a shame to waste the deer. Who has see this type of thing?

Wounded animals like this are unfit to eat. Their entire systems is full of white blood cells trying to heal as it taints the meat. I’ve found even deer or elk that are wounded and required hours of tracking don’t taste good and was told that adrenalin also taints the meats.

Rick

A place i used to get to hunt at was full
of turkeys. The first one I shot was full
of green streaks through the breast and
the legs from fighting. The lease mgr.
said about 1 in 3 gobblers were like that
during the spring season. He said that
most of the hunters weren't interested
in eating them anyway, just for a mount
or a photo
Neighbor killed a big antlered buck a
couple of years ago that had a couple
of pus spots, but not throughout. He
just cut em out and the rest was ok
and looked and smelled fine.
Might make more of a difference if
you eat bloody meat

I’ve killed hogs like that. Big boars that had lots of scars from fighting. Nasty.

I butchered a buck last week that had been shot above the shoulder neck junction a couple weeks back. He was healed up pretty well, but I had to trim out a bit of neck meat that had some yellow gel near the wound. No odor or anything, so I kept the rest of the meat.

Sometimes you have to feed the buzzards and coyotes.

Yeah, it's gonna be composted...just a shame!

Not one to typically suggest this but would the game warden issue you another tag under these circumstances? I know here they have in the past, both for deer and moose.

I opened up what I thought was a healthy old doe. Like a gallon of what looked like green tinted milk came out with the entrails. One of the grossest things I have every seen. No idea what the deal was but I washed my knife with rubbing alcohol and was glad I was wearing gloves.

i shot a buck around 10 years ago like that and i left it there was no way i was eating that one i shot.

That would just about kill my appetite for venison until I could wash out my memory cells. I recall as a kid collecting eggs for my Mom and finding a couple that had started to sprout when cracked. I couldn’t look at an egg for a long time

Rick

They would, but our rifle season is over and I’m not going out late season. Additionally, you have to surrender the head or “buy it back” at $10/pt. Yeah, silly, I know.

🤢 It happens.

A buddy killed a moose like that. he'd been fighting. Green stinking meat was so rank the dogs wouldn't get within 5 feet of the meat.

Mike took it in to F&G and got clearance to take it to the landfill. No, he did not get another replacement tag. Season was over anyway, but they don't do that here, anyway. What you shoot is it, recovered, spoiled, or not. If you even superficially wound an animal, your hunt is technically over.

Gangrene stinks in a very bad way that is hard to express enough, a person has to have it or try to process an animal with it to fully appreciate a story like this.
Like said adrenaline is a bad taint also and maybe why some people get ruined for life on game meat after someone chases it hard. The meat stinks different also.

I downed a decent six pointer that had gangrene in one hind quarter. Upon further digging with my knife, I found a small, pointed pellet. Someone had shot this buck with a pellet gun! - Sherwood

That is caused by a worm infestation. They look like white lines of spaghetti in the muscle when the hide is removed.

I had one like that in Alabama who had evidently been in a serious fight, his chest was swollen and stunk to high heaven.