Cwd testing

[Husker hunter]

If I harvest a deer this fall I want to have it tested. The vet lab doing the testing said they need a lymph node. Is it possible to remove lymph nodes without destroying the cape if I want to mount the deer? Has anyone done this before

 

[Deleted member 38069]

You can find lymph nodes near the hams. Just look it up on how to access it.

 

[BrentD]

Easily done. The neck lymph nodes are just under the back of the jaw. Not attached to the skin. Depending on where you are with the caping process, you may still have them attached at the skull.

 

[Hunting Wife]

You have to take the retropharyngeal lymph nodes- below the jaw, behind the windpipe and esophagus. Cape it first, then dig for lymph nodes.

 

[pondweed]

It's easy unless it's not....like with an elk wedged in between trees and in low light...certainly doable though

WY G&F video may be useful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jpvxatk0gw

 

[ClearCreek]

You have to take the retropharyngeal lymph nodes- below the jaw, behind the windpipe and esophagus. Cape it first, then dig for lymph nodes.

As Hunting Wife has said, cape the animal first leaving a portion of the neck (maybe 6-8 inches) below the "back" of the lower jaw bones. The person doing the removal of the retropharyngeal lymph nodes should be able to extract the lymph nodes from an animal that has been prepared as described.

It can be done. I have successfully taken numerous CWD samples from animals that were in the condition described.

ClearCreek

 

[wytex]

Yes you can, just did it. Hunting wife and clearcreek are right. Make sure you get the lymph nodes and not salivary glands.

 

[Husker hunter]

Thanks guys. Nebraska has limited testing through our game & parks. I'm planning on taking my deer to the vet college for testing.

 

[Godsstepbrother]

I just took a head to the game warden office in NM. They took it out from behind the jaw and some spinal tissue from the head. It was pretty easy but they messed the head up pretty bad, we aren't mounting it so we didn't care.