Would you eat this bull?

[Ga6570]

My wife killed her first bull on Halloween, and what started as a great day ended in disappointment. Antlers are cool, but we hunt for meat.
I don't want to be wasteful, and certainly don't want to throw away an elk that took all day to get out, but I'm really struggling with feeding my family with this.

He had a really nasty infection on the bottom of his brisket, that puss was bubbling out. The wound went into the lung cavity.
As you can see, he is very skinny.
I'm afraid the infection might be throughout his body.
You can see the bright viens all over his hide, I don't know that it's related, but I've never seen hide look like this.
Not sure what to do, this sucks.

I didn't read any other reply's prior to making my comment.

Contact MT FWP - present this to them.

Several years back I was with a friend who harvested a calf that was acting funny on a ranch north of Livingston, my friend found similar issues with the animal as he was starting to cut it. He called FWP, they took the animal for testing and gave him a new tag. They said not to eat the meat.

Sorry for your situation.

Good luck!

 

[DavidleeCole]

Very nice bull. I would not eat it unless we were starving. Last month I shoot an 610lb. Hog the sow had an infection deep in the shoulder we did not see but could smell. But hogs stink anyway, took it to the butcher and he imeaditly called for my opinion and I told him throw it away.

I shoot a buck when I was a young father and it had a bad spot like that not knowing I cut the bad out and put it on the table. Not knowing that infection goes through the whole body.

WE ALL GOT SICK FROM IT. Threw it our to the dogs.

 

[skipglo]

My wife killed her first bull on Halloween, and what started as a great day ended in disappointment. Antlers are cool, but we hunt for meat.
I don't want to be wasteful, and certainly don't want to throw away an elk that took all day to get out, but I'm really struggling with feeding my family with this.

He had a really nasty infection on the bottom of his brisket, that puss was bubbling out. The wound went into the lung cavity.
As you can see, he is very skinny.
I'm afraid the infection might be throughout his body.
You can see the bright viens all over his hide, I don't know that it's related, but I've never seen hide look like this.
Not sure what to do, this sucks.

Have you contacted your Wildlife department...most times they will issue you a new tag when this happens. I personally wouldn't touch it.... good luck

 

[CaptnC]

When I first seen the title to your thread I thought it was about the election!

I never shot an Elk, but I have shot several deer and hogs that had Logan shot before.

Buzzards need to eat too!

If the infection runs deep like that...No!

 

[C S Fever]

My wife killed her first bull on Halloween, and what started as a great day ended in disappointment. Antlers are cool, but we hunt for meat.
I don't want to be wasteful, and certainly don't want to throw away an elk that took all day to get out, but I'm really struggling with feeding my family with this.

He had a really nasty infection on the bottom of his brisket, that puss was bubbling out. The wound went into the lung cavity.
As you can see, he is very skinny.
I'm afraid the infection might be throughout his body.
You can see the bright viens all over his hide, I don't know that it's related, but I've never seen hide look like this.
Not sure what to do, this sucks.

Had a mule deer many years ago that had a wound in the rib area my butcher immediately cut that section out and went quite a way back from it to where he thought it was fine. He did package that quarter separate from everything else and said if anything doesn't taste right use it for dog food!

 

[NDAR15MAN]

No way. Bring your inhume system down , bang you will have virus in 3 days. Stay away. From it. MD

 

[marvee]

My wife killed her first bull on Halloween, and what started as a great day ended in disappointment. Antlers are cool, but we hunt for meat.
I don't want to be wasteful, and certainly don't want to throw away an elk that took all day to get out, but I'm really struggling with feeding my family with this.

He had a really nasty infection on the bottom of his brisket, that puss was bubbling out. The wound went into the lung cavity.
As you can see, he is very skinny.
I'm afraid the infection might be throughout his body.
You can see the bright viens all over his hide, I don't know that it's related, but I've never seen hide look like this.
Not sure what to do, this sucks.

Contact game department, good chance they will re-issue ano

 

[Chap Pops]

My wife killed her first bull on Halloween, and what started as a great day ended in disappointment. Antlers are cool, but we hunt for meat.
I don't want to be wasteful, and certainly don't want to throw away an elk that took all day to get out, but I'm really struggling with feeding my family with this.

He had a really nasty infection on the bottom of his brisket, that puss was bubbling out. The wound went into the lung cavity.
As you can see, he is very skinny.
I'm afraid the infection might be throughout his body.
You can see the bright viens all over his hide, I don't know that it's related, but I've never seen hide look like this.
Not sure what to do, this sucks.

A few years back I shot a whitetail that had apparently been cut across the brisket by an arrow. He had puss running out, was very thin, and smelled terrible. The only deer I ever wasted, but it is not worth taking the chance, even with an elk.

 

[marvee]

My wife killed her first bull on Halloween, and what started as a great day ended in disappointment. Antlers are cool, but we hunt for meat.
I don't want to be wasteful, and certainly don't want to throw away an elk that took all day to get out, but I'm really struggling with feeding my family with this.

He had a really nasty infection on the bottom of his brisket, that puss was bubbling out. The wound went into the lung cavity.
As you can see, he is very skinny.
I'm afraid the infection might be throughout his body.
You can see the bright viens all over his hide, I don't know that it's related, but I've never seen hide look like this.
Not sure what to do, this sucks.

 

[marvee]

Contact game department, good chance they will re-issue another tag

 

[bigred1]

I wouldn't feed it to a politician of any stripe and I think more of my dogs than to feed them a festered up elk.

 

[Gone Ballistic]

My wife killed her first bull on Halloween, and what started as a great day ended in disappointment. Antlers are cool, but we hunt for meat.
I don't want to be wasteful, and certainly don't want to throw away an elk that took all day to get out, but I'm really struggling with feeding my family with this.

He had a really nasty infection on the bottom of his brisket, that puss was bubbling out. The wound went into the lung cavity.
As you can see, he is very skinny.
I'm afraid the infection might be throughout his body.
You can see the bright viens all over his hide, I don't know that it's related, but I've never seen hide look like this.
Not sure what to do, this sucks.

What does the liver look like. This will tell you right off if it's not edible. Bad liver means bad meat every time but, if it looks OK, it doesn't necessarily mean that the meat is good. Obviously, this elk was full of infection that has engulfed it's bloodstream so I, personally would not eat it unless you had a fish and game biologist test it. I did this with my moose I shot. He had apparently been in a fight with another moose and had a broken piece of antler stuck in his head behind his ear. When I caped him out I noticed his eustacian tubes from his ears behind the head were infected. I had the fish and game test the meat and check the liver. Everything was fine. Scraping the skull was something that my taxidermist earned his money mounting him. Have it checked out by a biologist and your wife will be able to get another tag.

 

[DSheetz]

OH H@#$ No . I wouldn't eat that with any thing else to eat .

 

[Amikes]

My wife killed her first bull on Halloween, and what started as a great day ended in disappointment. Antlers are cool, but we hunt for meat.
I don't want to be wasteful, and certainly don't want to throw away an elk that took all day to get out, but I'm really struggling with feeding my family with this.

He had a really nasty infection on the bottom of his brisket, that puss was bubbling out. The wound went into the lung cavity.
As you can see, he is very skinny.
I'm afraid the infection might be throughout his body.
You can see the bright viens all over his hide, I don't know that it's related, but I've never seen hide look like this.
Not sure what to do, this sucks.

I've killed three bull elk now that have had serious infections from previously poor placed shots, two I packed out and tried to eat, but in the end we had to fill our additional cow tags for meat. The meat was inedible! The other was so rotten with gangrene that I actually could smell him before I even saw him! So I just turned and walked away...my kids were young and devastated that we killed an elk and weren't able to bring it home! I now get an additional cow tag every year and only head hunt on my bull tag that way I know we are getting the best possible meat. So I understand totally what your experiencing with this situation. I contacted the biologist at the university of Wyoming about the first bull I killed that was infected and he recommended that I either turn it into dog food, or throw it away!