Be Safe when Eating Bear Meat!!!!!!!!

[bowinhand]

If you pack it out I'll eat it! Heck, I'll help pack it out!

 

[Rick Seymour]

Yum...Do it right

 

[BuckSnort]

I did a CAT Scan on a fella the other day infested with trichinosis from eating pork that was under cooked. Guy was eat up with the larva and had huge holes in his brain where the larva were eating away. Not to mention the other parts of his body.. I hear almost all bears carry the Parasite and If you eat the meat under cooked you can easily get the parasite.. Very bad stuff, be safe out there.

Edit.. 98% of Trichinosis cases are from people eating Black bear meat.. Thats crazy considering how very few people have auctually tried bear meat..

Yep, been there done that.. I tried bear for the first time last year, 4 of us ate it and all 4 of us got Trichinosis.. I had it bad and didn't know what it was felt like the flu until I couldn't breathe and had to cal 911... How is the guy doing that had the CAT scan, will there be any long term effects?

Here's my story if you got a few minutes.. Keep in mine I wrote this right when it took place so the dates are off..

" I have felt like crap for about 3 weeks now, well a week ago I was driving in town and felt short of breath and tightening of the chest. I pulled off the road thinking it would just go away, it didn't and got worse and worse until I felt like I was gasping for air so I called 911 and went for an ambulance ride to the ER..

At the ER they gave me oxygen and ran tests and x rays, nothing wrong on the x rays and blood work confirmed I was not having a heart attack (I'm 35) So they release me... The EKG did however raise some concern so they advised that I should have a heart stress test done (after they release me)to make sure all is good...

The next few days I was worried something was wrong with my heart.. I got sick of worrying so I went camping for the weekend (this last weekend) to clear my head and relax.. Well on the way home I get a text from a guy I met during a previous backpacking trip in Sept, it says...

"Hey Jason, just wondering if you and your brother got sick after eating that bear we killed, me and &^%&* did Doc thinks we have worms takes 4-6 weeks to start feeling bad"

DING!.. Light goes on..

Rewind to Sept 18th... Me and my bro backpacked into the high country where we met 2 guys that had killed a bear, we joined them at their camp for dinner where we had bear ribs and backstraps.. And looking back some of it was undercooked..

So I called him up and he asked me my symptoms (muscle fatigue,shortness of breath)and they are the same.. Now I figure I better get a hold of my bro since I have not heard from him in a while.. he probably has them too..Turns out he has been sick for 3 weeks with the same symptoms..

They can enter your central nervous system and cause respiratory paralysis ... This is what was happening to me...Scary

Sorry for the long post I'll shorten it up... All 4 of us got sick from the meat.. When the blood work comes back it will confirm that we all have Trichinosis which is very rare, only 12-20 cases in the USA a year.."

 

[aggieland]

Damn, Man that's some crazy shiznit..

 

[robby denning]

So are you alright now? scary deal!

 

[BuckSnort]

Yeah I feel fine now, ready to get back into the shape I was at before eating it...

 

[marshrat]

Hate to hear about that. I think I will be filing this lesson away for the future.

 

[Florida Mike]

I have never hunted Brown Bear but I've never heard of anyone that could eat one of those coastal browns. If anyone has I'd like to hear about it too. Mike

 

[Chem-E]

Ive always wanted to hunt bear, but I was raised on the premise dont kill what your not prepared to eat. I have had an aversion to eating bear for these very reasons, so ive never hunted them. Do homeless shelters take donated bear meat?

Also I believe that any animal that eats meat is vulnerable to trichinosis. So watch out!

 

[Becca]

Ive always wanted to hunt bear, but I was raised on the premise dont kill what your not prepared to eat. I have had an aversion to eating bear for these very reasons, so ive never hunted them...

I had some similar feelings about black bear when I took mine last year, but found that having it made into cured sausage at our meat processor was an easy solution. Trichinosis isn't a threat if the meat has been cooked to well done (160 degrees), but since having to use a meat thermometer sounded like a hassle, I asked our processor to turn our two black bears last season into pepperoni and teriyaki sticks. I had planned to try them, and then give them away as a novelty if they were terrible They turned out amazing!! Best snack sticks we have ever had made, and best of all I don't have to worry about cooking them because they are ready to eat as soon as they are defrosted. They made great snacks for road trips and backpacking, and now Luke doesn't waste as much money buying slim Jim's at the gas station Made me believer in hunting black bears, hoping we can bag at least one this spring to restock the freezer.

 

[wapitibob]

Thanks for the info, I think I'll stay with Elk and Antelope.

 

[broncoformudv]

Yep, been there done that.. I tried bear for the first time last year, 4 of us ate it and all 4 of us got Trichinosis.. I had it bad and didn't know what it was felt like the flu until I couldn't breathe and had to cal 911... How is the guy doing that had the CAT scan, will there be any long term effects?

Here's my story if you got a few minutes.. Keep in mine I wrote this right when it took place so the dates are off..

" I have felt like crap for about 3 weeks now, well a week ago I was driving in town and felt short of breath and tightening of the chest. I pulled off the road thinking it would just go away, it didn't and got worse and worse until I felt like I was gasping for air so I called 911 and went for an ambulance ride to the ER..

At the ER they gave me oxygen and ran tests and x rays, nothing wrong on the x rays and blood work confirmed I was not having a heart attack (I'm 35) So they release me... The EKG did however raise some concern so they advised that I should have a heart stress test done (after they release me)to make sure all is good...

The next few days I was worried something was wrong with my heart.. I got sick of worrying so I went camping for the weekend (this last weekend) to clear my head and relax.. Well on the way home I get a text from a guy I met during a previous backpacking trip in Sept, it says...

"Hey Jason, just wondering if you and your brother got sick after eating that bear we killed, me and &^%&* did Doc thinks we have worms takes 4-6 weeks to start feeling bad"

DING!.. Light goes on..

Rewind to Sept 18th... Me and my bro backpacked into the high country where we met 2 guys that had killed a bear, we joined them at their camp for dinner where we had bear ribs and backstraps.. And looking back some of it was undercooked..

So I called him up and he asked me my symptoms (muscle fatigue,shortness of breath)and they are the same.. Now I figure I better get a hold of my bro since I have not heard from him in a while.. he probably has them too..Turns out he has been sick for 3 weeks with the same symptoms..

They can enter your central nervous system and cause respiratory paralysis ... This is what was happening to me...Scary

Sorry for the long post I'll shorten it up... All 4 of us got sick from the meat.. When the blood work comes back it will confirm that we all have Trichinosis which is very rare, only 12-20 cases in the USA a year.."

Did the doctors ever confirm you had trichnosis? What did they treat you with? How are you now?

 

[BuckSnort]

Yes, It was confirmed that all 4 of us who ate the bear meat that night got Trichinosis... We were treated with a month long session of pills called Albenza..The meds were bad too, made us week and made us put on weight, and in general just made us feel like crap...But much better than the alternative..lol

We seem to be doing good so far real close to 100%...

 

[broncoformudv]

Yes, It was confirmed that all 4 of us who ate the bear meat that night got Trichinosis... We were treated with a month long session of pills called Albenza..The meds were bad too, made us week and made us put on weight, and in general just made us feel like crap...But much better than the alternative..lol

We seem to be doing good so far real close to 100%...

It is good to hear you all are on the mend! Sorry didn't mean to come across as doubting you with your diagnosis just was curious if the docs did diagnose you with it or if they just treated you with the meds. Seen it go either way plenty of times.

 

[ohhiitznik]

Making me NOT want to eat black bear... I guess you just have to cook it till its WELL done.

 

[belly-deep]

Yuck. Makes me think twice about wanting to shoot a bear!

 

[dbaker]

my whole family eats bear meat. including my two sons who are 1 year old and 2 1/2 year old. when i asked my family doctor he said he'd be more hesitant to feed them 90% of the beef sold in stores/restaurants based on the way it's raised and processed. my opinion may change if one of us got sick however i've been sick from eating deer before and althought i stopped eating if for a while (not so much by choice but by involuntary reaction) i soon started and thoroughly enjoyed. bottom line for me. make the cleanest shot i can, field dress/skin the cleanest way i can, process and freeze thoroughly for minimum of six months, cook thoroughly and enjoy! happy hunting!

 

[BuckSnort]

my whole family eats bear meat. including my two sons who are 1 year old and 2 1/2 year old. when i asked my family doctor he said he'd be more hesitant to feed them 90% of the beef sold in stores/restaurants based on the way it's raised and processed. my opinion may change if one of us got sick however i've been sick from eating deer before and althought i stopped eating if for a while (not so much by choice but by involuntary reaction) i soon started and thoroughly enjoyed. bottom line for me. make the cleanest shot i can, field dress/skin the cleanest way i can, process and freeze thoroughly for minimum of six months, cook thoroughly and enjoy! happy hunting!

dbaker, Welcome to Rokslide.....With all due respect, yer doctor is a damn fool... Since I have gotten sick from bear I have done some studying on the subject..There are many areas of the west that every bear studied by biologist were infected with Trichinosis...I also read that freezing does not kill at least one strain of the parasite, so that leaves cooking thoroughly as the only prevention... It only takes a bite or two of undercooked meat to get them... The bad part is the doctors usually don't know what wrong with an infected person and by the time they do find out the parasites have multiplied by the thousands and are in the blood stream and crawling around in yer heart, lungs, brain etc... Believe me, I went from being in shape and feeling great to dying in just 2 weeks time...And it took months to start feeling better...

 

[BuckSnort]

It is good to hear you all are on the mend! Sorry didn't mean to come across as doubting you with your diagnosis just was curious if the docs did diagnose you with it or if they just treated you with the meds. Seen it go either way plenty of times.

No worries, I didn't take it like that...And I know what you mean... Even with all the tell tell symptoms I had my doctor didn't wanna believe it either until the blood work came back..

 

[dbaker]

thanks for the warm welcome bucksnort. i still prefer wild game (to include bear meat) over store bought beef and my family will continue to eat it.