https://www.qdma.com/articles/ticked-off-no-more-venison
On Thanksgiving Eve 2013, as I sat in the emergency room waiting area for the third time in less than a year laboring over each breath, I watched my forearms turn from pink to purple to almost completely black. I began to face the reality that I may have a tickborne condition that would change my life as a deer hunter forever. I know what you’re probably thinking: A life-changing tickborne condition… Lyme disease? Thankfully, no. Rocky Mountain spotted fever? Guess again. This recently-discovered condition is a game changer (pun intended) for any deer hunter who might contract it, and if it becomes wide-spread, it could have negative impacts on our entire deer hunting heritage.
Three years before this, my dad had a similar experience where he stopped breathing and was rushed to the hospital. After months of running tests, doctors determined my dad, a fanatical deer hunter, had contracted a tickborne allergy to Galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, or more commonly known as alpha-gal, a carbohydrate found in mammalian meat. My dad’s allergy is so sensitive that not only is venison, pork and all other mammalian meat off the table but so is anything that comes in contact with it. As you can imagine, this is a very inconvenient condition for any carnivorous person, let alone a Quality Deer Manager! Sadly, my dad is now a regular at the same vegan restaurants that he used to despise and poke fun at. Now, if that doesn’t scare you into tucking your pants into your socks and spraying your clothes down with permethrin, I don’t know what will! And now I’m sure you can relate to why I simply did not want to accept that I too had the alpha-gal allergy.
Around the same time my dad was diagnosed, I began struggling with some allergies, such as hives and itchy throat on and off but not anything as severe as what my dad was dealing with. Friends and family suggested I likely had the same allergy, but I refused to believe it. After all, if it were true, I would have to face the harsh reality of what that meant for me and my identity as a deer hunter.
You see, like most of you, I am very passionate about deer hunting and management; so much so that I pursued education in wildlife management and am now a professional wildlife biologist. That's me in the photo above, with a quality buck I killed recently.
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https://www.qdma.com/articles/ticked-off-no-more-venison
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