What would you do?

[griz#1]

If you shot a deer in south Texas and you gave him the 30 minute wait before retrieving and you found a rattle snake 5 feet from your deer and think nothing of it after skinning your animal you notice the animal has bitten by the rattle snake by the fang marks.  What would you do? Is the meat still good?

[vermonster13]

Where was it bitten? Odds are the deer was dead or close to it so had very little blood pressure to pump venom around. Should be able to remove the immediate area of the bite and be fine.

[non-typical]

I'd eat the snake too.

[Bakes168]

Would cooking the meat thoroughly get rid of the bad stuff?

Bakes

[griz#1]

vermonster13    had to call my brother he lives by the king ranch in texas.he said it was bitten on the rear leg by the tail.

[hormoan]

I still sit in wonder, how did they find fang marks in a critter covered in fur.

[vermonster13]

Then it was most likely dead or close when bitten(unless it was a real short deer and real long snake). I'd trim real good around the bite mark and not worry too much about it.

[Soilarch]

I wouldn't *THINK* the toxin really does any damage when ingested...as opposed to injected.
I wouldn't suprised if the affected tissue turns to goop after awhile.  

Hopefully we've got a few MDs or Herpetologists on board.

[KyleAllen]

im with soilarch on this one. The venom never actually enters the body when it passes through the digestive tract. I know your thinking how is that possible. Well it is not actually considered to be within the body when in the GI tract because it is open at both ends. I do not believe that the mild acids in the stomach would neutralize the venom. I do believe that the venom could be absorbed in the bowels. I am also reminded that the old treatment for a bite was to suck out the venom.

I would avoid the area close to the bite. Any venom that may have been trasported by the vascular system would be highly diluted. Unless the deer lived a while after the bite, the fang would have to have punctured a vessel for it to have been transported through the body before death. I believe it takes about 10 minutes for a intramuscular injection to be absorbed and to take effect.

I'd eat it....but id rather you have some for supper the day before ;^)

and how was the bite located again!?!?! Was the area swollen? If there was only a small puncture wound, id be likely to write it off as a wound acquired by the local foliage during the death run.

just my .02

[TonyW]

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_6_109/ai_63290990
Is Rattlesnake Venom Evolving?
Natural History,  July, 2000  by Steve Grenard

"Rattlesnake venom is not a simple poison. The snake's venom glands; located at the rear of the upper jaw and connected by ducts to its pair of hollow fangs, produce a complex brew of toxic peptides, polypeptides, and enzymes. In the venom, these toxins are combined in differing proportions that vary throughout a species' range and even during an individual snake's lifetime. Rattlesnakes harbor so many biochemical mixtures for venom that toxinologists who analyze the stuff confront a range of variations rather than a standard formula for each species. Some of this variability seems to reflect recent changes in the venom of certain rattlesnakes, from the hemotoxic and proteolytic type (which affects blood and other tissues) to the neurotoxic type (which attacks the nervous system). The first type hasn't changed into the second; rather, the proportion of neurotoxins in the mix appears to have increased in some areas of the country. Consequently, victims may now receive a significant dose of both types of poison from a single bite."

[hunt it]

There is lots of deer in Texas, I would not chance it. I'd have taken pics of snake by deer and saved my tag. That's a snake kill in my books not a bow kill.