How to reduce risks while cleaning animals?

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Another thought: I'm a doctor and I hunt. Not a lot of experience cleaning large game but I do wear gloves. Saw a guy while working at the walk-in a few years ago. He'd cleaned a downer cow ( same day it died ) a few days prior and was covered almost to his armpits with boils. BIG NASTY boils. Abscesses really. I'd like to see what a large animal vet thinks on the subject. I'm wondering what changes or should change if you can't find your animal that night and do find it the next morning. Or how much time one can wait in between death and cleaning in different temps and with different species of animals.

for some you do need gloves some other think differently up to the time ... thank you for your report.
 
As for cleaning game, I have field dressed and butchered hundreds of animals, deer, moose, black bears, grizzlies, elk, caribou, antelope, goats etc..., various predators, small game and skinned most furbearers. I have never worn gloves... and I have never suffered any issues... I have cut myself many, many times... usually because I am rushing... fortunately never seriously. I was my hands afterward, rarely with soap, as I don't carry soap with me in the bush. If there is beach sand, I will use it to scrub the fat and blood of my hands and forearms. I don't care if someone else wants to wear gloves or a full hazmat suit for that matter... I just couldn't be bothered. Maybe some day I will regret that decision, but after 5 decades, I will take my chances. Every time you leave your bed, you are taking risks, you just have to decide which actions are "too" risky and which you will play the odds on.
 
Lots of flexing within this topic!

OP - If you managed to wade through the internet tough guy gauntlet here, you have probably come to the conclusion that yes, there is a possibility that you could pick something up, get infected etc while dressing wild game. Some take no precautions aside from trying to not cut themselves. Others, for their own reasons, decide to glove up or let someone else handle the dirty work.

Everyone can tell you what they do and how they do it. You need to decide for yourself, whether or not that risk is acceptable to you, as an individual. Is it a big risk? Science says no - but that acceptance of it is your call and your call alone.
 
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