Safe meat? Ticks in ear canal & blood bubbles

[Beartooth83]

I harvested this deer yesterday in South East Montana. He looked completely healthy and all his muscle groups looks strong and normal. The first picture is from very close proximity to the tenderloin. I am mediately saw all these clusters of dark bubbles . On further inspection I realize that they were filled with blood . They were located in the fatty tissue but nothing was attached to the tenderloin itself . Have any of you guys seen this before and is it safe to eat the meat ?

The second picture is of the inner ear canal . When I was skinning the skull and as I cut the ear canal, I noticed colonies of ticks in each ear canal. I’ve seen tix on deer’s ears before but never so many living in the ear canal itself . They varied in size and their bodies were kind of pale colored with almost yellow legs.

These two findings have me a little concerned if the meat is safe to eat . Like I said other than these two findings everything else looks normal . None of the meat was spongy or strange looking at all . Please let me know if you guys have seen anything like this before and if I should be concerned

 

[Beartooth83]

Sorry for the grammatical errors as I am doing talk to text on this post. . Here is a picture of the deer so you can see that it looks normal other than what described above.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Neither are anything to worry about as far as eating the meat from that buck.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Those little black things are called Hemal nodes. They are basically part of the lymph system and are actually fairly common. They don’t indicate anything negative. Likewise, ticks in the ears also aren’t super uncommon. Neither of those would cause me to not eat that deer, and my wildlife disease work has made me a pretty conservative eater!

 

[marksjeep]

Congrats on the buck!

I've never seen the hemal nodes, that's great info.

 

[Gr8bawana]

All of the deer I have ever taken here in NV would have been glad if their ticks were only in the ears. Seem their "armpits" and around the rectum always have ticks as well.

 

[walking buffalo]

I suspect those are ear mites, not ticks.

And the glands are not only normal, it would be severely Abnormal is the deer did Not have them.

All good and safe to eat, except for the ears.

 

[Walkathon]

I've noticed the little black lumps in several deer and have eaten all of the deer meat with no issues at all. Didn't realize they were Hemal nodes. Congratulations on a nice buck !

 

[Bulldog0156]

I agree with Walking buffalo, ear mites, not ticks. Pretty common.

 

[Beartooth83]

Good info everyone. Thanks for enlightening me as I have not noticed this on all the deer I’ve taken in the past. I can’t imagine living with those little critters crawling around inside my ears. Think they can feel them or do they just get numb to it?

 

[Hunting Wife]

Good info everyone. Thanks for enlightening me as I have not noticed this on all the deer I’ve taken in the past. I can’t imagine living with those little critters crawling around inside my ears. Think they can feel them or do they just get numb to it?

They can certainly feel it. If they are mites (could be, honestly can't see the picture well enough on my phone), you could see some hair loss on the ears from the animal scratching if the infestation is bad enough.

 

[devon deer]

Those little black things are called Hemal nodes. They are basically part of the lymph system and are actually fairly common. They don’t indicate anything negative. Likewise, ticks in the ears also aren’t super uncommon. Neither of those would cause me to not eat that deer, and my wildlife disease work has made me a pretty conservative eater!

You are bang on the money, Hemal nodes.

As for the ticks, that's why it didn't hear you coming

Nice buck BTW

Cheers

Richard

 

[wyoboypt]

ive seen that before. meat was good.