Frostbite on Turkey Feet

[LetEmGrow]

Thought you guys might like to see this. I shot this bird this morning in 8N (Ontario County).  His feet are in pretty rough shape.  Looks like frostbite. 
Kind of gives you an idea of what it was like for some critters out in the woods this winter.  He is a 3 year old. 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2014 by LetEmGrow

[Paula]

yuk

[Five Seasons]

yuck indeed

[TeeBugg]

Wow! Never seen that before

[silent death]

It almost looks like he stepped on some coyote traps...weird

[ants]

UGLY!!!!!!

[Paula]

Wow! Never seen that before

I think I have at walmart. Hahaha

[LetEmGrow]

I am pretty sure it is frostbite.

Here are a couple more close-up.  Look at his left foot.  It is split almost all the way to the tendon. 

[wooly]

A little freezer burn on the drumsticks ain't so bad as long as the breast meat's ok!

Unique trophy, congrats!

[Marion]

those are some knarly looking feet! Gross! Looks like he's got leprosy 

[Five Seasons]

You should post them on www.oldgobbler.com or maybe NWTF's website and get an expert to say for sure. Might just be an infection/injury?

[JALA RUT]

Wow, never seen anything like that before...amazing how they can survive out in the weather.

Congrats on the bird!

Edited May 6, 2014 by JALA RUT

[MACHINIST]

Holy crap!!!

[rotorooter23]

that just ain't right

[LetEmGrow]

You should post them on www.oldgobbler.com or maybe NWTF's website and get an expert to say for sure. Might just be an infection/injury?

 

I posted it on NWTF below if anyone is interested

 

http://www.nwtf.org/message_board/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=285405#Post285405

 

[greg54]

That's pretty nasty but Congrats!!

[Terry]

Nature can be cruel. Congrats on the kill!

[TreeGuy]

That birds got the herpes.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[skyhunter]

you did him a favor. congrats

[Five Seasons]

I posted it on NWTF below if anyone is interested

 

http://www.nwtf.org/message_board/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=285405#Post285405

 

 

looks like they're stumped too. haha.

[jjb4900]

maybe it's something other than frostbite....I would think we'd see it a lot more if that was the case.

[wooly]

Maybe an archery hunter tried to cut his toe nails and it got infected.

I just came up with that scenario after this mornings hunt.

 

Edited May 7, 2014 by wooly

[whaler]

Could it be that something crushed his feet? Could explain why only the longer middle toes are disfigured? Run over?

 

Maybe the bird was perched on something metal and when to hop off and caught the longer middle toes on it?

 

Only explanation i can think of. I cant really see that being frostbite because the feet are mostly skin, cartlige and bone down there. Not a whole lot of soft dermis to freeze and die.

[Elmo]

Yeah, I doubt it's frostbite if it only effected one digit.

[Mikejd]

I know this is a few weeks old but if you still have those feet lying around you might want to let F&G see them. Something they may have an answer for or something they may want to test.