Roadkill muntjac

Iva

Active Member
Not a hunter myself, but my dog just loves muntjacs, so I've been known to collect the odd roadkill. The other day I spotted one as I was driving, couldn't pick it until later that evening, so the butchering was done next morning. The meat itself looked still fresh, there was no nasty smell (apart from just normal gut smell), no open wounds, so it didn't have any fly eggs, and the animal seemed pretty healthy overall.
One thing which concerns me was the colour of its skin on its groin area. It was kinda bluish-green. I didn't take photos, and it's all now in the freezer, but I'm not sure if I should feed it to my dog after all.
Any ideas? Have you seen this yourselves and is that just normal rot process? My estimate is that it's been dead roughly 24 hours by the time I cut it up.
Thanks
 
Personally I would never, you never know how that deer came to be there and you could be giving something nasty to your dog. Unless you were in the car behind the one that hit an otherwise healthy animal id pass it up. What if a vet has put it to sleep and not followed the letter of the law on disposal? Unlikely I know but I wouldn’t risk it for my liking.
 
Personally I would never, you never know how that deer came to be there and you could be giving something nasty to your dog. Unless you were in the car behind the one that hit an otherwise healthy animal id pass it up. What if a vet has put it to sleep and not followed the letter of the law on disposal? Unlikely I know but I wouldn’t risk it for my liking.
That's what I was wondering. I know vets are only supposed to PTS and not treat them, but surely they wouldn't leave it lying there for other animals to get poisoned.
I reckon it must have been hit by a truck on the head. It was only bleeding from the mouth and nose. No other injuries.
 
Yep
I wouldn't feed any type of road kill to my dogs, as DS 308 says, don't know the history of the beast or the possibly of chemical usage, best left well alone, let the council clear it up, they have all the gear to get it sorted safely

Too many possibilities that could work against you with roadkill
 
I get called out to RTAs involving deer. But never would I eat any or feed it to my dogs if its not good enough for me to eat it's not good enough for my dogs simple.
Frankly, as I was cutting it, it did cross my mind that it looks fresh enough for human consumption. I'm not worried so much about the freshness, after all, if my mutt would quite happily munch on a week old dried up unidentifiable carcass, he should be fine with a day old deer. But the blue groin skin concerned me.
 
Many many years ago when I had lurchers, I picked one up ,, a mate said its just been knocked over , and he wanted a bit if I butchered it ,, so thats what I did ,,, on chopping up he came round for the loin fillets, as I was chucking bits of scrap to the dogs ,,,10 to 15 mins later dog was unconscious, breathing one heavy breath every 10 seconds or so , rushed it to vets ( where it stayed for 2 days on a drip) thought to myself it must have been uthanised,,, then f..k me ,, my mate took some to eat !! Luckily he hadn't yet ,, needless to say never picked anything up since,, it may be coincidence, but then it may not !!!
 
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Frankly, as I was cutting it, it did cross my mind that it looks fresh enough for human consumption. I'm not worried so much about the freshness, after all, if my mutt would quite happily munch on a week old dried up unidentifiable carcass, he should be fine with a day old deer. But the blue groin skin concerned me.
The discolouration is more visible on muntjac because the fur is white/pale and very thin on the belly, an un-gralloched deer will go green/blue around the belly within 12-24hrs post mortem
 
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The discolouration is more visible on muntjac because the fur is white/pale and very thin on the belly, an un-gralloched deer will go green/blue around the belly within 12-24hrs post mortem
I had to Google "graloched". LOL
Well, as long as it's a normal thing, and not due to anything toxic used to euthanize it, I'm sure my mutt wouldn't care much.
 
Many many years ago when I had lurchers, I picked one up ,, a mate said its just been knocked over , and he wanted a bit if I butchered it ,, so thats what I did ,,, on chopping up he came round for the loin fillets, as I was chucking bits of scrap to the dogs ,,,10 to 15 mins later dog was unconscious, breathing one heavy breath every 10 seconds or so , rushed it to vets ( where it stayed for 2 days on a drip) thought to myself it must have been uthanised,,, then f..k me ,, my mate took some to eat !! Luckily he hadn't yet ,, needless to say never picked anything up since,, it may be coincidence, but then it may not !!!
Jaysus, that sounds scary! Did the vet confirm it was due to the deer being euthanized?
 
He just said ,if its in the system then your in the lap of the gods ,, it apparently is irreversible if there's to much in the system,,that was maybe 20 years or so ago , he also said a vet wouldn't leave it by the roadside either , so we never really knew either way , just never took the chance since , and nowadays get more than enough by shooting so no need anyway !!
 
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Unless it’s been tagged EAT NOT or DO NOT EAT or something to that affect you won’t know if it’s been euthanised. The vet could of easily forgot to tag it, not had tags or simply didn’t bother! You can’t possibly know why risk it!! As stated above Its doubtful a Vet would leave it by the road but who knows?
 
I think the blueish green under the skin is because its not been bled. Its the first thing to decompose. Just seen it once when I lost a beast in the dark but found it the next day. I think theres lots of risk averse advice on here but if you think its safe do as you please.
 
you must be mad to pick up roadkill especially in the summer. even without considering the drug aspect it is clearly not fit for human or animal use. people are literaly giving good deer away an you are scrapeing stuff off the road.
 
you must be mad to pick up roadkill especially in the summer. even without considering the drug aspect it is clearly not fit for human or animal use. people are literaly giving good deer away an you are scrapeing stuff off the road.
I don't actually know any local hunters. Didn't realize there's venison glut. I've been picking pheasants and muntjacs. LOL
 
I think the blueish green under the skin is because its not been bled. Its the first thing to decompose. Just seen it once when I lost a beast in the dark but found it the next day. I think theres lots of risk averse advice on here but if you think its safe do as you please.
That makes sense. Thinking about it, it's the first intact muntjac I've had to deal with. The rest had various wounds from the vehicles, so they were "bled" that way. It's why I hadn't seen it before.
 
I'm not sure why you haven't considered bacterial decomposition. I used to stalk round a massive pig house, which was monitored remotely most of the time. The casualties brought out on a Monday morning match your description.
As has been written in another thread, dogs will eat eat things that are off the scale in terms of decomposition.
I'd nearly be more concerned about the risk of infecting any cuts you receive butchering such a carcsse.
 
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First area to go 'green' on game birds as well, if you hang them. Lots of people happy to eat them, so don't see the issue, if the meat smells ok. Too much fuss about all the hygiene carry on these days imo, people (and their stomachs) have gone soft!

The whole vet thing just sounds like urban legend to me....it's always just someone who heard someone down the pub say something that maybe happened, somewhere, once.
 
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