Anyone go to the trouble of packing disposable gloves for cleaning game? Anyone ever get sick from cleaning big game? I can't seem to gut a deer without at least one small cut on a finger. I've never worn gloves and never gotten sick, but my dad attributes one bout of flu-like stuff to gutting a deer without gloves. I'm going to to Colorado (CWD unit) for an elk hunt this year, and I'll probably bring a few pair just because of the risk of CWD.

If you use them, what kind? latex or something else? long cuffs or standard length? how thick? powdered or powder free? textured fingers or smooth? I know that's lots of questions, but we sell gloves and we carry a disposable glove in almost every combination.

I use heavy duty nitrile gloves that go up above the wrists. I just use them to keep from getting so nasty when I don't have much water around.

I use vinyl gloves instead of nitrile since they are easier to put on and take off. They are about the same thickness too. Actually they are what is used in the food industry. Get the powder-free ones since the powder is left on your hands and likely on the meat too. Textured fingers would be good, but I use smooth since that's what we have in the lab where I work. They also work great for cleaning fish. Keeps that nasty jackfish smell off of your hands.


SS

I use kitchen gloves from the food store. Not too thin, but thin enough and long enough to keep you pretty clean.

Jeff

I use them all the time. Just the examination gloves that I "borrow" from my doctor's office while they are making me wait in the silly gown. In fact, last year when I was hooked up to IVs after a car wreck and couldn't move, I made my son "borrow" a handful.

I started doing it antelope hunting--when water is scarce, I would rather drink it than wash my hands. So when I peel of the gloves, I am as good as clean. It is not really motivated out of health/CWD concern--they are just easy to pack.

No.

Gutting a critter without getting blood all over my hands, arms and the rest me just doesn't seem proper.

Old school, I guess. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Steve

I couldn't agree more. Several of my hunting partners like gloves for cleaning birds, but it just doesn't seem right to clean birds without the "refreshing" sensation of washing your hands in ice melt from the cooler and bloodstains on the cuffs of my shirt. If it weren't for the ridiculously slim chance of a CWD-infected animal, I wouldn't even ask.

Thanks for the input so far. I've never done this kind of hunting before, so the "drinking instead of hand washing" angle did not occur to me. It also never occurred to me to borrow them from a doctor's office.

I hope you return them after you use them (grin).

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.

However, the best gloves I have found are from a local dairy farmer. They are the ones he uses for artificial insemination. The are shoulder length and very durable. And, if you take the heart and liver out with you, just turn them inside out when you are finished gutting and use them as bags.

WN

Here's one good reason to use them in this area. Poison oak is horrible this time of year.

The shoulder length livestock examination gloves are perfect for the task. A vet friend got me a box of them after this latest incident.

If you dont have blood up to your ears and at least down to your knees, you dont have as much fun skinnin and guttin as I do!!!! Hey MattO, where do you work. i'm about 10 minutes from Northeast Wichita. 721

I pack at least one pair of disposable gloves for both hygiene and keeping my gear and clothes that I touch afterwards clean. In the past, I've used standard length plain thin latex or vinyl gloves without powder or texture (basically inexpensive gloves from the Walmart housecleaning section), and they've worked fine, but I have a pair of shoulder-length gloves I may try next time I'm reaching inside a deer carcass. With the thin gloves, it's easier to feel around, and I don't feel I need textured gloves if I'm using thin ones.

I use the water I have with me mainly to rinse out the inside of the carcass in the field rather than clean myself up, but I always hunt in areas where I can get more drinking/hand-washing water as soon as I leave the field.

I use a white cotton glove because it's easier to handle the meat when you are working. Doing a moose you are working on the meat for quite awhile and the gloves give you a better grasp.

Who guts deer anymore???

I just quarter all my animals out using the Alaskan method. Very easy and clean on the meat. Of course I hunt out west where you might be packing it out a few miles to the truck.

I do taxidermy and I don't even wear gloves when prepping capes for the tannery. You have a better chance of getting sick from a McDonalds hamburger than blood from a game animal.

I used gloves for the first time last year, and I'll never go without them again. I just used those yellow kitchen dishwashing gloves, and cleaned them off later.

I use latex Mechanics' Gloves--mine are blue in color and thick enough that I don't tear them while poking around inside the body cavity, but thin enough that I can feel what I am doing. Back when I was in graduate school and necropsying a lot of animals (deer and other ungulates), the vets that worked with got me in the habit of using gloves. At one point, I knicked a glove and my finger that was in it with a knife and ended up with a galloping case of tularemia (popularly known as "rabbit fever"). If you ever go a few rounds with this ailment, you will think twice about poking around in dead critters with your bare hands (and you will be thankful that you never have to think about your lymph nodes and whether they might be swelling to the point of bursting!).

I have hunted in a CWD unit in Colorado for the last four years (and killed an elk each year) and I do recommend that you use gloves, just to be safe...

I, too, use cotton gloves. I worry not so much about getting "stuff" on my hands as opening an entry point for the "stuff" to get inside me. Cotton gloves help. More importantly though, they give some protection against freezing the skin while skinning the animal. Once inside the guts it isn't difficult to warm one's hands occasionally if they get cold. Nothing like a little intestinal handwarmer. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Of course, this isn't very desirable if the guts have been torn. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

MattO,
I think there are several valid reasons for wearing gloves, protection from pathogens being one, but CWD would be at the bottom of that list. Consider this. You don't want to touch the animal while field dressing because of possible infection, but hopefully you plan on eating it? CWD prions aren't destroyed until at least 1700 degrees fahrenheit for an extended period of time. ALthough I don't want to start a CWD debate, it's been around for at least 40 years, no doubt thousands of people have ingested infected animals, and no human has been infected.

Personally, I'd still be a little leary and I would not consume a known CWD infected deer, but in today's world, I would be more concerned about rabies than CWD.

There are several precautions you can take. Because CWD prions primarily manifest in nervous tissue, don't cut into the spinal cord or brain. Bone your meat and make sure lymph nodes and fatty tissue are removed. Clean your knives with Clorox or potassium hydroxide, which kills the prion. I don't know if CO has a program to test your animal, but since you're concerned, it amy be something to look into, if for nothing more than peace of mind. Good luck on your hunt.

BTW, I personally use blue nitrile gloves, they work as well as any and don't take up any space. I wouldn't worry about powdered gloves if that's what you have, that'll just rinse off, and I almost guarantee your dentist uses them, he puts them in your mouth, so the powder can't be all bad.

See the threads Hunting for Stories 8 - No Bathing and A disgusting question and you'll know my answer! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Post deleted by Coyote_Hunter

That's what I use and they work great. You really get a much better grip than with bare hands.

Jeff

I use the dishwashing gloves with the gripper ridges. They help hold on to slippery parts as you pull them out. Other than keeping your hands clean and keeping you from catching anything they also protect you hands from getting cut by pieces of bullet, bone, or arrow blades. tom

I use plain latex surgical gloves.

Just got off the phone with our glove rep. He says he gets several of these requests every year ("samples" for cleaning game with little chance of a sale), and will send me a box of gloves. That one box will probably last five years, if I start using gloves for all my game and fish cleaning.

JonZ: Colorado has a low-cost testing program that I intend to use, but unfortunately I'll have to clean & pack out the animal before I get the results. Obviously a positive test sends the meat to the trash can. Also, your post says that 1700F is required to destroy the prion, and that raises some questions. All the material I've read advises thoroughly cooking the meat as a preventative measure, which obviously will not work if 1700F is required. Why the recommendation? Are they hoping to prevent transer of the other pathogens you mentioned through the relatively high profile of CWD? Are they misinformed?

Incidentally, Colorado's regulations book offers refunds of license fees and "reasonable" processing costs (or supplies if you do it yourself) in the event of a positive test. Anyone ever ask for a refund?

If someone wrote that thoroughly cooking will denature CWD prions, then I would say they are misinformed. Cooking, as you said will kill most pathogenic parasites, viruses, and bacteria (trichonosis, rabies, e coli), but prions are different because they are never alive to begin with and are just protein (viruses aren't technically alive either, but most have pretty narrow temperature tolerances and don't survive too long outside their host). So, no cooking won't kill CWD, unless you plan on incinerating it, but it works for most other pathogens.

Good luck on your hunt.
JZ

I use the Nitrile gloves talked about, or at least latex gloves. However, since latex and Notrile are so slippery, after I put-on the latex gloves I wear a set medium weight Neoprene gloves over the latex. The Neoprene gloves have a non-skid surface on the fingers.

I hunt moose and other large game, and carry my game bags in a plastic box that has a tight lid. These are the things I have in the container:

3 sets of latex or Nitrile gloves
1 set of Neoprene gloves
2 skinning knives (pre-sharpened)
1 hatchet
1 large plastic bag
1 ZipLock bag*
3 plastic wire ties

*In Alaska one must leave the game's evidence of sex naturally attached to one leg. I place the ZipLock bag around "the evidence," and tie it with a plastic tie. The plastic ties are also handy if you have to tie the intestine near the anus to avoid messing-up the leg meat. I imagine this is not a problem with deer, but a moose leg is heavy and hard to move around.

No-I do not use gloves and never have,infact,I have never seen anyone use them to gut there game.Gotta get alittle bloody or it just isn't huntin. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Jayco

Me neither, Jayco. I have worked livestock and dressed game all my life without gloves on and doubt I could work with them at this late date. If I know I'm not going to be around water then a few of the handy wipes in a ziplock takes care of clean up. If they will take grease, oil, dirt whatever off your hands they will do for blood. Then dry your hands off on your britches leg. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

BCR

Working LE, medic, and ski patrolI always had a couple pair of latex gloves in a pocket and still do,,,picking up trash gutting game, boning game, cleaning fish,,,,,helps hold those slipery buggers....

I agree with Coyote.. When I read Utah's post about stealing gloves at the doctors office, my first thought was that he is just a common thief.. And that opinion hasn't changed. I assume he want's his son to follow in his footsteps.

Coyote and JBP3

The water where y'all live is running a little high in righteous and judgment, perhaps.

My time bills out at least as high as my doctors', yet the HMO has a policy that requires me be there 15 minutes before the appointment, and yet they often keep me chilling in the anti-fleeing gown 15 minutes or more after its scheduled time to begin. Perhaps the symbolic act of taking a couple of pairs of gloves keeps them from putting me on high blood pressure medicine.

For a good reason to wear gloves, take a look at this web site:
http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=disease.main

When I start worrying about wearing gloves to gut my game..I won't eat the meat if the bloods gunna kill me.If the blood is so full of "Cooties" the meat is also not worth eating in my opinion.

Jayco

No gloves, no cutting myself.

How many of the local "Meat Cutters" in the grocery store wear gloves when tearing down the beef in chunks for Steaks/Roast or even Hamburger?

In my off months from logging to keep buisy, I used to work for Albertsons/Safeways/Smith Food King and the Old Buttery's and I never once saw a Meat Cutter(They hate the word..Butcher) wear Latex or anyother glove...

Course, I am over 39 and times change..

Jayco

A friend of mine never wears gloves while skinning and quartering moose. He has never contracted infections from moose, bears, birds, etc. However, since I am full aware of the chances I am taking when accomplishing such chores, I wear gloves. Quite a lot of Alaskans already know about an infection called "bear hands," while others have had what is called "seal hands." bear hands can be contracted while skinning bears, and seal hands from Alaska seals.

Regardless of how you feel about the subject of gloves while skinning and quartering game, cleaning birds, fish, etc., at least read the precautions recommended by F&G and other agencies. If you work in a lab and handle dead birds, read the cautions too:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/martin/newsletters/newsarticles/wildrecipes/infsafety.htm

http://www.extension.umn.edu/info-u/nutrition/BJ578.html

http://environmentalrisk.cornell.edu/WNV/WNV-LArchive/0728.html

http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/hunting/guides/biggame/fieldcare.asp

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=482&q=162501

http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/fish/fishregs/fishadvisoryextra.html

Yep I wear them when I remember to toss them in the pack.

Honetly I don't worry about the diseases and such when gutting. But I am around a fair number of defunct critters each fall and I wear them to keep my hands from getting so darn dried out.

Guess I am getting kind of panty waste in my older age (note I did not say old!!! grins I'll be 47 in Nov) Either that or I am getting smarter.

MD

growing older is inevitable growing up is optional

I use those cow gloves when cleaning deer too. Much easier cleanup, don't get blood on the sleeves of my hunting coat. Good farm stores have them or bum a pair from you're vet, they're cheap.

I cut the fingers off of the cow gloves and wear rubber gloves - blue nitrile because I have them anyway - for a better fit and much better feel of what I'm doing.

Rationalize it any way you want � its still petty theft which makes you a petty thief. Makes absolutely no difference if you make $5 an hour or $500.


Great values you are teaching your kid.

I rarley use them while cleaning a deer or turkey. However, when Ms. Piggy hits the ground the gloves are always on. Never heard about anyone getting sick off a hog, just saw my dad do it years ago. Monkey see, monkey do I guess. Regular ole latex gloves work fine. Roll up your sleaves and its on. Remeber to take off your gloves before lighting a smoke. I always forget that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

It's not right to "borrow" from the good doc, even though he's rippin' you a new one.

Yup, the shoulder length poly livestock OB gloves are great at minimizing cleanup, take a lot of abuse and can go over a jacket sleeve.

Thanks for the great tip about turning inside out to package liver and heart. $15 for 100 at vet supply store. Easier packing than a jug of water

I have to use gloves. Yellow dishwashing kind. I am allergic to the deer hair and have a terrible itching reaction to the blood.

I nearly always have them along and nearly always use them. For one thing, I often have to do the work when it's cold and I get the job done better and with less hassle (washing hands with snow loses its quaint, outdoorsy appeal after a while, at least in my experience <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I do know a couple fellows who are less messy than I am, however. I think they could dress a deer while wearing a Tux. (Well, not quite, but CLOSE..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />)

I use the extra long dish washing type and wash them up later. Surgical gloves are too thin.

Nope, no gloves. Why? Because if I put gloves on, I can't find my azz with both hands and a map... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

MattO:
For the last 2 years, I used neoprene gloves for taking care of Caribou. They really offer a lot of protection from cuts on my hands, and less slippage than bare-hands. I wish I had tried them sooner.
Smitty of the North