Ocular Toxoplasmosis

[Musky Buck]

My cousin has this, he is basically blind in one eye and I'm not certain if he'll totally recover from it. He ate the tenderloins from a fresh deer kill, they weren't sufficiently cooked and a parasite got lodged behind his eye which has caused him bad vision, he says there's a big gray cloudy appearance when he tries to see with it. I guess I had never heard of this before, be careful and freeze that venison, cook it thoroughly. Maybe some of you could add some to this. It started out as a fever, night sweats, etc. He had to see many doctors/specialists, and now he is on many pills/steroids, etc. Be careful.

[certified jumbo]

wow, sorry to hear about that. i always eat my venison steak/loin a little pink (tastes better). i'd like to hear more about this. i hope your brother gets better!! does he know if the eye sight with medication will get better or go away??

[Jameson]

What!!!! Thanks for the heads up. I think many of us enjoy barely cooked fresh tenderloins. I will be looking into this some more.

[hockeybc69]

WTH?????

Yikes. I have a sausage making fest Saturday. Might leave the stuff in the smoker extra long. Sheesh.

[wh1stler]

How did they determine it was from the venison?

[Cooter]

Yikes is right, I had 100% raw loins last fall.

[mrklean]

sorry to hear that hope he will recover

[Musky Buck]

Google it if you want. I just wanted to make others aware as I had never heard of it and have eaten some fairly mildly cooked venison. Certainly not trying to scare people. Remember this, they shot a buck, and that night skinned it, after skinning it took out the tenderloins and put them on the grill, he said they were cooked medium/rare. Wasn't but a day he started getting the symptoms, flu like. I think this is true, processed veni and frozen and I'm not sure you can get it that way, this came from the deer to the grill to consumption.

[Musky Buck]

If you google do ocular toxoplasmosis deer meat.

[Jim Uran]

I never eat fresh deer meat, well not that fresh. I always let it sit for at least a couple of days. Still I'm not sure if that even matters. Wow, that's too bad. Sorry to hear about your friend.

And Cooter?!?!? What the heck man!!! Straight up raw?

[lovebigbluegills]

Sorry to hear about your cousin Musky.

That's my favorite part of deer hunting is cutting the tenderloins and backstraps off while they're still warm and throwing them on the grill or the frying pan. Time to come up with a new "favorite part" I guess.

[Musky Buck]

He is doing pretty good now I think, he is slowly regaining his vision, but man from November 7th till now, that's quite a journey and I couldn't believe I didn't hear about it until yesterday. I think we would hear more stories like this so it must be fairly rare no pun intended. Just cook thoroughly and many of us have gotten away with undercooking. Other than Ocular Toxoplasmosis there are other reasons to make sure bacteria/parasites are killed in the process. Be safe everyone.

[Cooter]

Glad to hear he's doing better and hopefully can make a full recovery.

leechbait - so fresh it was still warm, had to try it once.

[PEATMOSS]

Sounds better than sucker head soup.

[Musky Buck]

My worry a bit more would be make sure that kids keep away from marginally cooked stuff. At first they were thinking maybe the H1N1 or something, but when the vision started to go they knew they were dealing with a different beast. His brother ate from the same meat and didn't get it.

[DonBo]

Acquired Ocular Toxoplasmosis In Deer Hunters

Five young men presented with flu-like symptoms followed by visual loss due to a unilateral, focal necrotizing retinitis. All five men gave a history of ingesting undercooked or uncooked venison. All five had elevated toxoplasma, and all five improved clinically with an antitoxoplasma treatment. In previously healthy young men, flu-like symptoms associated with visual loss and retinitis should prompt questioning about hunting and raw game meat ingestion, especially when toxoplasmosis is suspected.

[fr0sty]

Thanks for the heads up musky. I still must insist on eating rare/medium rare though!

I found a good article from wikipedia on this illness. Sounds like cat [PoorWordUsage] is a major way people get infected. In fact, the article said that 1/3 of the population is infected. Yikes!

[Musky Buck]

right on frosty, I read that as well that's why to narrow it down I said google deer meat etc. Just trying to make others aware and had not heard of this before, probably unluck of the draw in getting sick from it. Had 669 Tcam pics in the swamp, camera never failed, same batteries from Dec. 22nd to Feb. 27th still with 63% to go. There were about 12-15 different bucks, I didn't go through them closely, most still have their racks. 2 were 3.5 year olds, 4 were 2.5 year olds, the rest yearlings. No fox tracks,coyote,wolf but 5-6 miles away there are packs of them in the Leaf River Bottom. I put tcam back out, just hoping I can get it out before the thaw.

[fr0sty]

What model cam do you use? I have the moultrie d40. Seems ok in warmer weather, but not so much below freezing.

[Musky Buck]

Moultree 4.0 IR. I put the batteries in it August 30th or so, used it from then until Oct.1st, took 200 pics off of it. Back out the next day until Nov. 2nd, took pics off, then like Dec. 20th or so until last Saturday, took 669 pics. So about 1,000 pics this year with 61-62% battery life left, my cousin has gone through 3 sets of batteries in his, he is discouraged because the batteries are basically dead when he goes to get it wondering what was missed etc. Best part is maybe 2 false alarm pics out of a grand. I got lucky, just for a year read customer reviews and it seemed like the least problematic, I'm sure others have good luck with a different kind. I put it back out on Monday on the spring fed water hole, the deer drink like crazy there and I don't have to dump goodies to draw them in, free water. Now back to Ocular Toxoplasmosis lol.....sorry readers.

[bobbymalone]

If you insist on eating it rare/medium rare you could at least freeze it for a couple days first.

[Musky Buck]

Right on. He didn't, sounds like 3-4 hours after harvest they were nibbling, his brother didn't get sick from it, but has lyme's disease from a tick a few years back. His dad was purposefully shot during deer hunting in the 80's. They have had some of the worst luck with deer/ticks/hunting.

[Spooda]

I don't believe I ever licensed my story to you Jake!

Seriously guys. I never ever though this could happen to me. eating fresh loins was a tradition. I ate a lot more of the heart then my 2 hunting buddies did because they were newbies, but both tried it. It normally happens to immunocomprimised people (think AIDS), but I have been tested for EVERYTHING and my doc says that if he didn't know I was infected, he couldn't tell by my bloodwork. Liver, kidneys, Heart, White Blood count ALL normal. (HIV negative too WHEW!)