Trad Gang

Got the first of the year. I was very disappointed when I walked up and found this.

It had tumors / warts all over.

PS got him with my Bear Takedown

 (http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq253/OBXarcher/135_0240.jpg)

 (http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq253/OBXarcher/135_0238.jpg)

here's what I got from the a state biologist.

Those are cutaneous fibromas, benign skin tumors caused by a virus.  They actually may be temporary (you can get some deer that are absolutely covered with them that wind up losing them with no effect on deer).  Deer like this are no problem for hunters- they can skin them and the growths come off with skin and don't affect meat.  On ones that are REALLY covered with large tumors, secondary infection and other issues that can affect the health of the deer (e.g. blindness when eyes get covered up) and make them unfit for consumption.  Thanks for sending along.....

Absolutely NOT !

I know wasting an animal sets a few fellows off but it's only a deer. Never take a chance with questional meat.

Congratulations and good shooting.

As the biologist said, those fibromas should come off with the skin.  After you have skinned him you can check for any active secondary infections and then make your decision.  If there are no major infections with active puss build-up then I would proceed with the butchering,wrapping and freezing.  They are not an illness or disease and does not hurt the meat or your use of it.

QuoteOriginally posted by Forester:
Congratulations and good shooting.

As the biologist said, those fibromas should come off with the skin.  After you have skinned him you can check for any active secondary infections and then make your decision.  If there are no major infections with active puss build-up then I would proceed with the butchering,wrapping and freezing.  They are not an illness or disease and does not hurt the meat or your use of it.

I agree.


Then again "Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms," Josie Wales   :biglaugh:

I agree with Forester. I got some trail camera pictures of a doe with them on her shoulder and contacted the state biologist and he said the sme thing Forester said. When you skin the deer there will be no sign of them on the inside of the hide.
Jack

eat it.
you're not a deer.

I would eat! When hunting Caribou, somethime you get tones of big "cists" caused from the bugs bites and I never had a problem with the meet!! If in doubt, you can bring some meet sample to a biologist and they should be able to tell you if it is good or not!
Good luck

Nothing wrong with the meat. D Sheppards response seems to come from an emotional standpoint not one backed up by science. I am a veterinarian and i would eat it if I killed it.

I took a buck 8 or 9 years ago with the same growth, although not as many of the black balls.  I asked the biologist about it at the check in station and he said not to worry about eating the deer.  I had no problems consuming the deer.

State game biologist said the same thing about a deer taken by a friend a few years back. Peel her and eat her. Course it does make you wonder. Don't it?  :dunno:

Those are just flavor pockets...MMMMMMMM!!

I would.  No problem at all.

No - I would leave it lay.

Not for my family.

How the meat looks and smells would be the deciding factor for me. Any off smell and I would dump it!

Cook it well done..  :laughing:

If I did eat it, the whole time I would be thinking about the tumors. I just don't think I could handle that. The hell with science. I would not serve that deer to other people. I have killed squirrels with bot fly larva in them. I am sure science would say I could eat the unaffected portion but it would gross me out. Those squirrels were donated to the cause. I didnt feel a bit guilty about it either.

I would and have.  The fibromas are only skin deep.  Don't be afraid to eat those squirrels with warbels either just remove the affected area.

I already have, over the years I have killed at least 3 with the same condition. I also have eaten a few with brisk cysts which are a fluid filled area on the brisket which forms to protect and injured area, like a bruise or puncture. Skin it and you will see 9 times out of ten it is only skin deep!! I know you can eat rotten meat and it not hurt you as long as it is cooked at high temperatures, but your deer will be fine! Shawn

No way!

Nothing emotional about my response, been eating critters all my life. Just like food in the fridge ... "if in doubt throw it out"

Man I hate to say it, but I would have a tough time with it, as I would still be remembering how it looked before skinning.  Sorry for the queezieness..but that's just my honest response.

I know, that if it was "seen" by my wife or kids before removing the skin, they would say "NO WAY" am I fixing or eating that.

Gene  

:scared:    :eek:

To waste that meat would be shameful! Nothing wrong at all with it...

When you skin it you`ll know.

I would have said yeah, eat it.....until someone mentioned pus.

In my neck of the wood, if the meet is good, no mather how the skin look like, it is unethical and agains the law to waste meet. So look past those "cosmetics" things and don,t waste what Mother Nature gave you!!
Cheers

Honestly I dont think I would eat it. I would keep thinking about those tumors while I was eating it.
Im sure the meat is probably fine.

Nothing wrong with him...I have killed several deer over the years like that and they are fine....they all come off with the hide.  One doe a few years back had quite a few large ones on her legs and neck.

We got a doe on a trail camera whos face was totally covered with those things. If its only skin as they say I'd deffiniteluy eat it!!

Would you marry a woman with a  Mole (beauty mark)on her face?

It's whats on the inside that counts!

my throat would close up every time i thought about it.

Well, let us know what you did. Any pictures after skinning ... or did you skin it?

I'm not going to criticize whatever you decided.

It may be ok but I'd have a tough time bringing the fork to my mouth. I think I'd pass.

Just don't eat the hide

I'm sure the meat is OK. Just don't eat the hide

Never judge a book by its cover. Open it up and then decide.

Make Jerky out of that one   :)

QuoteOriginally posted by Manitoba Stickflinger:
Those are just flavor pockets...MMMMMMMM!!

Yuk Manitoba...that was a mental image/taste in my mouth I didn't need!  :biglaugh:

I think you should definitely eat it. I wouldn't touch it but I think you should eat it.        :biglaugh:     Gary

Dadgum sagebrush I about fell outa my seat laughin that was great.But I'm with alot of the others skin it then deside. But I'll be honest here if I had not come across this thread and got one like that I probably would left it in the woods    and felt terrible for it.

Where I'm from, Oregon, you are required by law to tag it and recover the meat.  If you have doubts about the edibility of it and don't want to eat it, you can take to fish and wildlife and they can and likely will issue you a new tag.  Do the right thing!  A non-hunter that finds a carcass abandoned in the woods suddenly becomes an anti-hunter.

My guess is, if we saw all the cows, pigs and chickens we buy pre-packed at the grocery store every week, we'd see things that would make us puke.

Actually, those warts make good eating. They're quite flavorful and have a creamy texture in the middle.  The outsides are a little chewy, but they are very nutritious.

Just kidding. Eat the meat, but you might want to stay away from the warts.

Alternately, you could have it processed and give it to the local food pantry.  They'll never know.

Could still use it to feed your dogs, or donate the skinned animal to a big cat refuge or something.

I'm pretty scientific, but don't care....too visual a person, I wouldn't eat it (am a neat freak and borderline perfectionist).

Heck I freak out when I see how some people field dress and or process their deer.

A observation if I may... In hunting with traditional archery equiptment, we usually find ourselves pretty close to the animals we take  or are about to take..   :wavey:

Interesting question Gene.  Do you shoot it to get it out of circulation with other deer?

I think it looks like it could have been a torment to the animal and if I saw and thus made that determination in the woods I would have most likely out of a kindness to the animal, put it down.

Also not knowing if it is something that might be spread to the rest of the animals it might come in contact with, I would have put it down.

There isn't any way that a single bite could be forced through my lips. It hurts/turns my stomach just to look at the picture.(which I only did briefly)

I am glad to know it's out of the herd and I am also glad that I didn't have to be the one who took it out.

God bless,Mudd

PS: Yeppers you can call me squeamish!!!...I wouldn't eat something like that or grits...lol

You biologists and veterinarians out there, what is your opinion on the animals overall health (while still alive of course). Does a deer suffer from this type of condition? I understand the viewpoint to put it down to end it's misery...but what if it isn't suffering and it is a wrong assumption that it is suffering just because it's ugly as hell?
If thats the case I better be careful walking through the woods, I consider myself pretty ugly!
I would rather let mother nature take it's course I think...she put it there. The weak are thinned out the natural way.

Did Manitoba Stickflinger REALLY say flavor pockets????????  I choked on that one!

thanks for all the inputs.

Couple answers to points raised
I did not see the warts on it prior to shot. To focused on what I needed to do
I would have shot it any way. I live on the outer banks and we need deer killed. Way to many vehicle/deer accidents. I teach hunter safety class with the NC wildlife officers and they and our local biologists wants deer taken.
As you can tell the recovery was late and I was not armed with that biologist information at the time. I chose to leave it for the coon and fox to feast on. I enjoy processing deer and eating as much if not more than hunting it so this was not an easy decision. Knowing that information now I would keep and eat the next one like that. My son and I have shot a lot of deer on the outer banks and have never seen one like this before.
I did pull the jaw bone for the biologist they require that for our area.

if the meat was ok once skined i would eat it

Coons and foxes are worshipping a small shrine of you as we speak, whooping it up, singing, dancing, the feast is on!

Without the biologist taking biopsy's of the assumed tumors,how would he know what they are.If you went and ate it and your family got sick how would you feel.It looks like great fertilizer for sure.And even things that grow on the skin start from inside the body with the organs.JMHO

Mudd has about summed me up as well, poor bugger looks to be in a better place I reckon, and seeing the pic there is no way I could eat that knowingly.

Cheers

In response to YORNOC.
As a veterinarian I would say that unless the tumors are of extreme size (picture basketball, as they can get that size) or in a location that caused the animal distress (over eyes, interfering with limbs) then the animals do not "Suffer" from these tumors and don't need to be put out of their misery any more than a more cosmetic looking deer in the herd.

Based on the pics of this deer I would say that she was not pestered by the growths at all. One benefit of being an egoless creature. LOL

Wile E are you serious calling it a she, did you see the massive rack ! LOL. biggest buck I ever shot on the Outer Banks.

Thinking about getting it mounted.

Definitely at least a nice little european mount anyway. I have my first trad buck mounted, spikehorn like this one. Just as proud of that as the others. (unfortunately, my kids named him "little petey!")
Thanks for the info Wile E....   SUPER GENIOUS!

Damn OBXarcher, didn't mean to dis your buck, was just so taken by the beauty bumps that I failed to look at the headgear. LOL

No problem. They are a little hard to see.

I will say he is by far the biggest body deer we have ever seen here. I am really sad that it turned out this way. Hopefully this will educate some people. I for one did not know.

FWIW

Even if I left that deer in ther field for the critters I'd consider that tag filled, buy another one to pursue other deer.

I didn't read every single post but...I've killed moose with those warts (even bigger)... there is absolutely no problem whatsoever.

It is just on the skin and the meat was/is fine.

Congratulations on getting the deer.

if i shoot it i eat it

My brother once shot a buck back in the sixties. When he skinned it he punctured a large sack in the neck area that contained about two quarts of pus. The fish and game said it was probably snakebit. We did not eat it. Gary

A friend aof mine shot a moose a few years back and it had a big sack full of pus, the size of a basket ball in is neck, it was an infection due to a wound after  a fight with an other bull, we assum... The meet was great eating!

Anyway, the decision you made is yours and as long as your happy with it, that is what matters!!
Cheers

Should of kept it.

I would be thinking on those fibromas every bite. blargh rsss