PA Hunter contracts rabies by field dressing

[Deebz]

The buck I killed with my shotgun this year did just that... I stalked up and shot him once as he jumped up out of his bed... I saw go into the tall grass by the creek, but he never came out the other side. My buddy who had a high vantage point said he hadn't seen him pop out of the creek bottom anywhere, so I started tracking... No blood, but I could easily follow his footprints in the wet sand on the creek edge.. I literally walked up on him... he was about 10 feet away before I actually saw him. I was trying to decide whether or not to shoot when I saw his ear twitch... I moved ahead a little more to avoid blowing up a shoulder and he exploded out of his bed... I quickly shouldered the gun and shot like I was hunting pheasants.. he dropped right there and died very quickly... I'm glad I was off to the side of him when he took off or I quite likely could have been trampled...

[Woods Walker]

Or worse yet cut up by those feet! I'd rather face the antlers, as bad as that can be, than the feet. Those feet can move SO darn fast that you'd be hit several times before you even knew it.

When I worked on a cattle ranch in Wyoming many years ago we had to wrestle Angus calves down for branding, castrating and vaccinating, and after a day of that you'd feel like you'd been worked over with a baseball bat and then kicked down 8 flights of stairs! ......AND THEY WERE BABIES!!!

[Bryan78]

Or worse yet cut up by those feet! I'd rather face the antlers, as bad as that can be, than the feet. Those feet can move SO darn fast that you'd be hit several times before you even knew it.

When I worked on a cattle ranch in Wyoming many years ago we had to wrestle Angus calves down for branding, castrating and vaccinating, and after a day of that you'd feel like you'd been worked over with a baseball bat and then kicked down 8 flights of stairs! ......AND THEY WERE BABIES!!!

Well wouldn't you be kicking like a mule if that happened to you?

[Woods Walker]

You gotta point there!

Reminds me of an old joke........

There was this young thoroughbred race horse who while he was being trained had some outstanding times posted on the training track. The decided to geld him, and after he recovered he still had those quick times in training. But then they started racing him and his times went WAAAY down to the point where he wasn't even competitive.

They called in a race horse physcologist and after studing this horse he told the owners that is was depression about being gelded. The owner and trainer were puzzled, because he ran just fine on the training track, so why would a race be any different?

The horse shrink replied..........."That's because he's reminded of it at the start of every race."

"Reminded?", asked the trainer, "By who?"

"By the race announcer," said the shrink, "The first thing he says when they come out of the starting gate is....."AND THEY'RE OFF!!!" [rimshot]

[gatodoc]

The title of the forum is a little off....The PA hunter was potentially exposed to rabies when he field dressed the deer without gloves. If he'd contracted it, he'd be dead.

Rabies is a virus which can affect any warm blooded mammal. Bats and skunks are the only mammals I know that can carry and shed the virus for fairly long periods of time before dieing. Dogs raccoons and foxes for example will die from the disease within a few days after they start shedding the virus.

Raccoons with rabies often get very aggressive. I'd consider them the biggest worry in the woods and the suburbs for that matter. Deer with the disease like other mammals lose their ability to swallow. The deer the hunter shot with rabies was sick and thirsty and that's probably why it was in the creek.

Latex gloves are cheap enough and all hunters should carry them to wear when handling raw meat. My dad got tularemia (rabbit fever) cleaning rabbits bare handed back in the 70's. (He did fine with antibiotics once he was diagnosed) Rabies isn't forgiving. Only 3 people in history have survived once they actually contracted the disease. Fortunately, post exposure prophylaxis is almost 100% effective.