Tularemia in Colorado

[Upwolf]

Is this actually something to be concerned about if I am harvesting and eating squirrels and rabbit/hare from the mountains of Colorado? I grew up raising meat rabbits and frankly never heard of this until recently. Seems like cooking should do the trick. Are there other things to be weary of?

 

[huntsman22]

No worries if you wait for a couple hard freezes and toss any that have spots on the liver.....

 

[E.Shell]

I haven't heard of tularemia in years, but 50-60 years ago it was in all the outdoor magazines and considered a major threat to rabbit hunting.

Word was to discard any rabbits with spotted livers. I've never heard of squirrels having it.

 

[Blockcaver]

Had Tularemia about 30+ years ago. Caught it from a cottontail I arrowed in NW CO (Moffatt Co). Was antelope hunting in Sept. Got one, then added a couple bunnies. Had a nick on my finger from cutting up the antelope. Infection actually put a blood poisoning streak up my arm and gave me a swelled lymph node in that arm pit. Golden, CO Dr was really slow to diagnose it, despite my mentioning the rabbit hunt.

Got pretty sick. Spent 2 days on IV’s (gentamicin) after having a 105* F fever.

CO Health Dept called me. We talked about my case of tularemia and others. Turns out they had the most cases in January the previous year, contrary to what most think about freezing conditions eliminating the risk. They said it’s in the rabbit population year around. And in the days before antibiotics, the disease was about 30% fatal to humans.

Wear surgical gloves when cleaning and cutting up rabbits! Not a fun thing to have.

 

[Upwolf]

Had Tularemia about 30+ years ago. Caught it from a cottontail I arrowed in NW CO (Moffatt Co). Was antelope hunting in Sept. Got one, then added a couple bunnies. Had a nick on my finger from cutting up the antelope. Infection actually put a blood poisoning streak up my arm and gave me a swelled lymph node in that arm pit. Golden, CO Dr was really slow to diagnose it, despite my mentioning the rabbit hunt.

Got pretty sick. Spent 2 days on IV’s (gentamicin) after having a 105* F fever.

CO Health Dept called me. We talked about my case of tularemia and others. Turns out they had the most cases in January the previous year, contrary to what most think about freezing conditions eliminating the risk. They said it’s in the rabbit population year around. And in the days before antibiotics, the disease was about 30% fatal to humans.

Wear surgical gloves when cleaning and cutting up rabbits! Not a fun thing to have.

That's a wild story, Blockcaver! Seems like good advice and a pretty small thing to do to prevent something big.

 

[Upwolf]

I haven't heard of tularemia in years, but 50-60 years ago it was in all the outdoor magazines and considered a major threat to rabbit hunting.

Word was to discard any rabbits with spotted livers. I've never heard of squirrels having it.

Yeah I guess it'd be more the plague for squirrels and not tularemia. ha

 

[M44]

I've had it too. Had a cut on my finger and skinning a muskrat with no gloves. High fever and two swollen lymph nodes. One on my arm pit and the other at my elbow. The one on the arm pit had to be lanced.
IVs for a couple days and then home. Took another week to recover. Tuleramia comes with a 7 percent mortality rate, but if you survive, you are immune to a couple other animal diseases.

 

[bruno747]

Took a few marmots from the flat tops near eagle a few years ago during a weekend camping trip. Discarded a couple because their livers were all spotted up. Went to an entirely different area a couple miles away and they were clean. Don't know if marmots get it but I wasn't gonna risk it. Thankfully I had gloves on because I snagged and split a fingernail earlier in the day.