caleb
New Member
Just to let everyone know I was helping a neighbor who is new to deer hunting gut a deer on saturday morning. It was a small buck that he had actually shot on October 1, but hit it high in the tenderloin. He had an infected entry and exit wound and was in bad shape, just skin and bones. He tried to jump a fence as I approached him and was to weak to make it over. I was able to secure him to let the neighbor finish what he started. While I was waiting for the neighbor to arrive the buck died, just from stress I guess. It was not pleasant. So the neighbor arrived to claim his buck and wanted to do the right thing, so he used one of his buck tags on it. Like I said, he was new to deer hunting and had never field dressed a deer. I tried talking him through it but ended up taking over the task. Problem #1, four hands, three rubber gloves. No big deal I thought, I have field dressed plenty of animals without gloves. I should have known better. In the bucks weakened state he had plenty of infection in his system. Problem #2, while washing up afterward I realized that I had skinned a knuckle in the proccess. No big deal right? Fast forward to sunday night. I couldn't sleep because of the throbbing in my hand, wrist and elbow. I had a big goose hunt planned for this morning and thought it would get better. I woke up after a fitfull sleep to find that red streaks had traveled up my arm, past my elbow to my shoulder. My hand was swollen and hurt pretty bad. Well I figured the doctors office doesn't open till eight anyhow so I may as well go goose hunt. Stubbling my blind, loading my gun, carrying decoys was a painful chore. We killed a limit of geese and then I headed to the doctors. Bad news, I had an infection traveling through my Lymphatic system. So for my good deed of helping a neighbor I got a shot in the a$$, two weeks of antiobiotics and flu-like syptoms. Like I said I should have known better so it as much my fault as anyones. Moral of the story, Use rubber gloves when field dressing deer. Oh and the doc that fixed me up is a big outdoorsman and great guy that has a really good website aimed specifically at hunters and fisherman, covering all the injuries that we encounter from lyme disease, to tree stand falls, to snake bites and poisonous plants. Definitely one to bookmark. web page
