Meat safety - wounded animal 3

[Deckerp]

Hey,

This has been discussed before but here is mine. Shot a bull elk this morning - after taking one side off and thinking his hind quarter looked a bit odd I flipped him over and found that he had a wound in that sides hind. Possibly an antler stab. Skinning revealed a lot of very pronounced blood vessels all around on that side. There was a large softball size abbsess oozing pink goop. I abandoned that quarter. I imagine it would have killed him. My concern is do we think the infection could have been spreading to the rest of the body via blood and the rest of the meat or other hind is not fit for consumption? I made two trips out today but was planning to go back for the other hind quarter tomorrow. I didn’t take pictures unfortunately.

Don’t like the idea of feeding my family something risky. Presumably cooked well done it might be safe but I do like elk less than that usually.


Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[mevertsen]

Man. I would worry about sepsis in the blood stream if you were concerned the wound would have killed him.

Maybe talk to a warden about a replacement?

Is this a general or LE type tag?

 

[Deckerp]

I spoke to CPW while dropping off lymph nodes and they seemed to think as have others I have asked that it’s probably okay but should be cooked fully. Probably won’t do any steaks with it then. Suggestions for well cooked items? Stew meat and taco meat both come to mind.

 

[cgasner1]

I spoke to CPW while dropping off lymph nodes and they seemed to think as have others I have asked that it’s probably okay but should be cooked fully. Probably won’t do any steaks with it then. Suggestions for well cooked items? Stew meat and taco meat both come to mind.

Grind it all into burger then can make about anything with that

 

[ignorethefringes]

Make a bunch of piles of sausage. Very little you can make with ground that you can’t make with sausage.

 

[Walkathon]

That sucks. My friend shot a deer once and it had a .223 bullet lodged in the hindquarter. Had been there a while and that whole quarter smelled like infection. Hope you can salvage yours. I think my friend ground his up or canned (pressure cooked) the other 3 quarters, backstraps, etc... We dug the bullet out of the hind quarter after we were done butchering the rest of it. That's how we figured out it was a .223 / 5.56MM

 

[Boarmaster]

I killed a whitetail deer once that had an injury. It was clearly festered and infected.
I was young then seemingly bullet proof and full of courage and low on experiences. I butchered the deer and tossed the festered quarter. The rest of the meat looked ok.
When I cooked it it had a terrible smell. I tossed the rest of that deer. Since then I never killed a deer that had a festered wound but should it happen I doubt I would keep it. I understand an elk is a lot meat to toss. But its also a lot of work to end up with bad meat.

 

[Bowhuntrben]

I shot a whitetail a few years ago that had been shot in one of the hind quarters. When we were butting him up, we discovered the wound and there was a bunch of green pus in it. We tossed that quarter and kept the rest. It tasted just fine and had no issues with it.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Hey,

This has been discussed before but here is mine. Shot a bull elk this morning - after taking one side off and thinking his hind quarter looked a bit odd I flipped him over and found that he had a wound in that sides hind. Possibly an antler stab. Skinning revealed a lot of very pronounced blood vessels all around on that side. There was a large softball size abbsess oozing pink goop. I abandoned that quarter. I imagine it would have killed him. My concern is do we think the infection could have been spreading to the rest of the body via blood and the rest of the meat or other hind is not fit for consumption? I made two trips out today but was planning to go back for the other hind quarter tomorrow. I didn’t take pictures unfortunately.

Don’t like the idea of feeding my family something risky. Presumably cooked well done it might be safe but I do like elk less than that usually.


Thanks for your thoughts.

If there was a proliferation of blood vessels there, the injury has likely been there for a while. Good chance he would have survived. I’ve seen some pretty incredible healed injuries. Hard to say whether it was septic or not without seeing/testing, but I think you made a decent decision in tossing that quarter and keeping the rest. The advice about cooking well is sound. Ground would be a great way to go. Tacos, lasagna, meatballs, meatloaf, casseroles, enchiladas, chili, ragu, stews, bolognese, turn some into sausage…so many things you can do with ground “beef”.

 

[Deckerp]

If there was a proliferation of blood vessels there, the injury has likely been there for a while. Good chance he would have survived. I’ve seen some pretty incredible healed injuries. Hard to say whether it was septic or not without seeing/testing, but I think you made a decent decision in tossing that quarter and keeping the rest. The advice about cooking well is sound. Ground would be a great way to go. Tacos, lasagna, meatballs, meatloaf, casseroles, enchiladas, chili, ragu, stews, bolognese, turn some into sausage…so many things you can do with ground “beef”.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes maybe he would have survived. Crazy stout animals. He was bugling and rutting still after all.

 

[Don Fischer]

Why in the world would you even think of feeding it to your family much less yourself. If it kills you, you won't know till it's to late.

Just happened o think. If you saw meat like that in the meat dept of the grocery store, would you buy it?

 

[Deckerp]

Why in the world would you even think of feeding it to your family much less yourself. If it kills you, you won't know till it's to late.

Just happened o think. If you saw meat like that in the meat dept of the grocery store, would you buy it?

Well all the meat I took home does look totally normal so no one would know if it were at the grocery store - suppose that happens in commercial settings. But I take your overall point about risk/reward.