Question about meat from injured grouse

[mixxedbagg]

Today I took 3 grouse, but when I cleaned them, one of the birds had something like a brown and yellow scab in the middle of the breast. I sort of knocked it out of there and there was a yellow lesion that was about 3/4" long in the breast meat. The meat within an inch of the lesion had a yellowish tint. It looked almost like it had a previous run-in with a hunter or predator. Unfortunately, I discarded all of the breast meat that had a yellowish tint. However, I did trim a small fillet from each side beyond the yellow. I hate to waste the entire bird, but should I have concerns about eating this? Has anyone heard of a condition in grouse that causes lesions? I don't remember noticing any other signs that the bird had something wrong with it, but the encounter was obviously short lived.

I would have taken a photo, but my hands were kind of messy at the time.

[bobbymalone]

I ate a crippled mallard I blasted when it came swimming around the deeks. It had a similar thing as what you described. Wish I didn't. I did it because I "didn't want to waste the bird." Didn't get sick or anything but it was nasty to the point of being inedible.

After thinking about it, I shouldn't have been surprised. That meat was effectively rotting. Cutting out the visibly bad parts won't stop nasty, uhh, juices?, from contaminating the meat that looks fine. Plus eating rotten meat, even cooked thoroughly probably isn't the best idea from a gastrointestinal health standpoint.

I would toss it and feel bad that I had to do it.

[setterguy]

+1

[Tom7227]

I had an experience where my dog grabbed a bird that had been shot. The leg was all green and stinky and a friend who is a doc said it was gangrene. I don't know for sure it he was correct but I didn't want to find out. I haven't seen anything out there that was worth getting sick over. Let the coyotes have it.

[Dave S]

I've shot many birds that had signs of gangrene. I write it off as a loss and throw the bird in the garbage.