I shot a buck on monday and quartered him out last night. He hung for 3 days and temps have been in the 20's at night, mid 30's for the highs. As I was cutting the last hindquarter off, I sliced through near the back where there was a good bit of fat, and when i did some lime-green ooze came out. I have seen some green come out of meat before, but normally around a wound, infection,or some meat that is spoiled and been in the heat; not meat that has been hanging in an inclosed shed with cold temps like we have been having. This was like a little pocket of ooze and was literally lime-green, and had no odor. Has anyone seen anything like this before? Im thinking it was some sort of absess maybe? And to add to it when I was cutting out the sections of that ham I found a little spot on the meat where it looked like little hairs coming out of the meat. So I cut it off and thoroughly inspected the rest of the meat and all looked perfectly normally. Would you all eat that particular hind-quarter?

It’s fine. If you’re describing what I think, it occurs in all deer. I believe it’s a gland

Just cut-around it and obviously, don't suck it off the meat or anything! May be a little infection, like he got gored in the butt or something? I've seen it before around wounds.

i've seen this in a hawg one time while cleaning it. i also found about 6 inches of arrow and broadhead in him. apparently an archer mad a not so good shot and the hawg was living fine. after skinning him i located where the arrow entered and that spot had completely healed. i guess the broadhead had dulled so much that it did not cut him up when he moved. i estimated he was arrowed around 2 months prior to us killing him with a rifle.

You guys are describing infection, which he was certain it wasn't. Infection will most certainly have a smell. Usually one you won't soon forget.

Mmmmm. Sounds good. Is that like the green stuff you see when picking green crabs?

Sooo, thats not guacamole??

I was skinning one of the deer we harvested last year and there was pocket of very light green ooze on one of the hams. It was about the consistency of elmer's glue, but thicker. I forget who I talked to (wildlife officer or butcher, as I recall), but they said it was probably gangrene from some type of wound. I thought that when a human got gangrene it was all over. In any case I cut it all away, we ate the deer, and we all lived to tell about it. Incidentally, while eating some ground venison a month or so ago I bit into something hard and spit out a shotgun pellet. No way to tell if it was the same deer or not (we got two last year).

Nope.......

Kbeaner,
I am a taxidermist and I see a lot of weird stuff like that all the time. I believe what you have is a cyst that I have found in many deer. It is not bad if it does not have an odor to it. If it has an odor it is infection from some type of wound or bacteria. The odor from an infected wound is not something that would escape your nose. I would not be afraid of eating your deer, just trim around it and go from there. http://wyomingtaxidermy.blogspot.com/