I have been a licensed falconer since 1994. I use trained hawks to catch wild game with. In 1998 I caught a squirrel with a red tail hawk I had at the time. The date was December 17th. It was a mild winter, as I cleaned the squirrel and it was noticeably thin. Two days later I felt like I had the flu this lasted 5 days I felt like I was going to die! I went to the doctor and he in fact told me I was dying but he couldnt figure out why, my heart and lungs were failing. I was admitted to the hospital ASAP. An infectious disease doctor was interviewing me asking if I ate any bloody meat? yes last month..nope too long ago not Burcellocis(SP?), Have you been exposed to raw sewage? yep at work two weeks back...nope cant be whatever it was he said..my wife says probably those damned hawks..he asks what I do with them, I tell him, he asks if any game recently cleaned was sick lately I tell him about the thin squirrel, with the bad coat, some ticks, it was sick...Textbook case of Tularemia, he says, orders IV antibiotics, a near death experience that night, and the next day I am on the road to recovery. For a week I didnt do anything but lay in a hospital bed Ididnt eat for two week I dont want to describe the vomiting and diareah but it was vile nothing but water literally for the first week in the hospital. The whole time I had doctors of all manner coming in with clipboards looking at me as if I was some type of unbelievable freak from Ripleys believe it or not.When I recovered the infectious disease doctor came in and told me had you not quit smoking 3 months before you would be dead. He also said he had seen two cases of this before. One was a little boy who buried a dead rabbit he found in the backyard he died, later they figured out in autopsy what he had ..Tularemia. Another was a man who hunted some jackrabbits in Kansas cam home died and he too, autopsy...Tularemia..I love to hunt I live to hunt. During hunting season my whole life if I rasie my hands to my face I can smell blood on them from cleaning game 5-7 days a week,literally, its in my soul. Two weeks after I get out of the hospiatl I was able to get out with my reliable old red tail her name was shotgun her first flight she caught a cottontail. I pulled out the rubber gloves, dispatched the rabbit that was in her feet, and gently pulled its front leg off for her so I could take the bunny from her without a fuss. As I pulled the leg off the scapula on the front leg of the rabbit cut my left palm to the bone! A friend of mine with me that day says I have a deathwish. I pulled off the gloves and from that day forward I dont use rubber gloves, I still hunt, I clean game with my barehands,I do however refuse to clean game if it is sick looking or acting, or if the liver is diseased and I always carry a water, soap, rubbing alcohol solution in a jug, to clean up with everytime I clean game. Be careful, bacteria is invisible. I could see the squirrel was sick and went against my better judgement, it nearly cost my life.
Thanks,
Chris
Topic: Do you wear rubber gloves cleaning hogs? (Read 6865 times)
