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Post by castiron on Mar 12, 2008 19:39:29 GMT -6
What precautions do you take skinning and handling your fur? I was told that rabies virus died within two hours after the animal was dead. Is this true? Do you use gloves or something else or nothing at all? Just wandering what everyone else do.
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Post by garman on Mar 12, 2008 19:45:27 GMT -6
gloves and this year a painting filtered mask, don't know if the mask filters are small enough to cover viral but appeared to help some. Then double scrub hands after entering house, but honestly coon make me sick every year, wife has begged me to stop and I believe if it happens again this year I will stop putting up coon.
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Post by bill1306 (Phil) on Mar 12, 2008 19:55:18 GMT -6
One of the things that I do every time I skin or work fur, is to wash my hands really well and then I rinse them with hydrogen peroxide. If you use the same hydrogen peroxide/baking soda/dish washing detergent solution that you use when neutralizing skunk odors, to rinse your hands, it will really show you how poorly we all wash our hands. Talk about bubbles. I do this even when I glove up to skin the animals. Most of the time I don't use gloves when I'm fleshing unless I have open cuts or scratches on my hands. The gloves are too hot to wear when I'm fleshing and excess moisture causes blisters.
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Post by robertw on Mar 12, 2008 20:24:15 GMT -6
Phil, Thanks for the tip about washing with hydrogen peroxide, good tip.
I use dish washing glove to skin with. A two pack at Dollar General costs $1 and are reusable until I stick the knife through the left index finger tip. I always have lots of extra right handed gloves!
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Post by td on Mar 12, 2008 23:19:24 GMT -6
How's the left finger?
I worked several thousand coon/coyote/beav etc per year for 30 years and never wore anything. Did get infection in a thumb once. Wear nitriles now, but more to keep hands clean since only working for an hour or two at a time nowadays.
Should extra precautions be done for skunk? Didn't start doing them until the last few years.
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Post by castiron on Mar 13, 2008 5:23:10 GMT -6
The reason I started this post is because we here of rabies popping up all around us here where we trap. To date no cases have showed up where I trap but you here of them 25 - 50 miles all around me. Only two or three people trap anywhere close to me that I know of, and the amount of animals is unreal. I have always skined and fleshed bare handed because gloves are very uncomfortable to me. I let the animals lay for a few hours before skinning, but with all the stuff that is out there I am beginning to think about this a little more. If anyone has information about rabies, destemper, or anything out there that we need to know about please fill us in on the do's and don'ts. Thanks
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Post by trappnman on Mar 13, 2008 7:28:56 GMT -6
grew up skinning barehanded like everyone else- went to gloves 6-7 years ago, and now it feels odd if I DON'T have them.
And I can sure tell the difference. Animal "jiuce" in a cut, does for me get those little infections going- gloves prevent that.
as far as other stuff, don't worry about it, perhaps I should...but...
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Post by thebeav2 on Mar 13, 2008 7:46:48 GMT -6
I use gloves when skinning coon since I normally gut them also but If I didn't I probably wouldn't use them. On rats no way, rubber gloves loses you all sense of touch and makes rat skinning a real chore. But my advice would be to use the gloves It can't hurt a thing ad If It makes you more at ease go for It. Better safe then sorry.
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Post by trappnman on Mar 13, 2008 7:49:42 GMT -6
On rats no way, rubber gloves loses you all sense of touch and makes rat skinning a real chore.
I simply cannot understand that at all- proper fitting latex gloves are skin tight. There is absolutely no difference for me, in speed, agility, or "feeling" skinning rats w/gloves or w/o.
my rat speed, rat in and rat out, is about a minute.
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Post by thebeav2 on Mar 13, 2008 8:06:12 GMT -6
I don't care what kind of mittens you wear you don't have the same feel as going In bare and that relates to other things too LOl And know matter what anyone say's you don't get the same kind of grip wearing mittens as you do with bare skin. And after a few rats your fingers are prortruding through those rubber mittens anyway so what's the use. One busted rat leg and the mitten Is history. And if you don't have those types of problems than you haven't skinned many rats LOL
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Post by trappnman on Mar 13, 2008 8:16:24 GMT -6
And after a few rats your fingers are prortruding through those rubber mittens anyway so what's the use. One busted rat leg and the mitten Is history. And if you don't have those types of problems than you haven't skinned many rats
LOL- bull. I skin 300-500 rats every year.
In an evening skinning rats, mink, coon, whatever- I just about always use 1 pair of gloves. For heavens sakes, quit buying the $5 per 100 type glove....
if you are tearing gloves in 2-3 rats- change your methods or get better gloves..
wrap the pelt around your hand if its slippery.
I'm starting to think YOU haven't skinned many rats...LOL
about the only way I get a tear, is from a coon toenail....
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Post by Gibb on Mar 13, 2008 8:25:54 GMT -6
I wear nitrile disposables, started out with the bare hands but skin at workshops all over the place. Never know were the critters come from. A lot easier to clean up and the wife really hated the smell of otter fat. Cheers Jim
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Post by johnthomas on Mar 13, 2008 9:05:53 GMT -6
The ist 2 or 3 weeks of the season and right on thru most of it if the winter is fairly mild i skin on the line here and there as i go, when walking in i skin on the spot, i have a pack in the truck with the tools needed, a good pair of coveralls, nitrile and cloth gloves with grips on them, if i skin at home later or my competitors garage i just carry the pack in with me and out as i go, the coveralls need washed sooner than i do but other than that my truck stays prettycclean, i never feel clean enough to eat however, so i end up livin off dr. pepper most of the seasom, im going to have to try something different as my body cant seem to function very well on soda anymore. ONe thing i tried new this year was to spray the shop floors down with a long lasting all purpose chemical with very little odor, and have a large square of old carpet to lay animals on as well as skinning area, i spray it down as well , throw it away when season is over, i had no fleas at all except for the ones on the animal itself when skinning.
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Post by Jeffrey on Mar 13, 2008 10:39:46 GMT -6
Along with the gloves, do any of you guys get a rabies vaccine? My partner skins all the skunks and coon, but he is immune to rabies because he has had the vaccine so many times. I know the coon we caught this fall, all two of them, probably had rabies, because they had porqupine quills in them, almost a sure sine of rabies around here. The next point I have is if there is rabies in your area, should you be shooting coon in the head?
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Post by romans117 on Mar 13, 2008 12:22:38 GMT -6
Gloves nitrile skinning, fleshing, boraxing, washing out hides. I cannot afford a disease or illness caused by handling an animal.
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Post by robertw on Mar 13, 2008 12:36:38 GMT -6
"I cannot afford a disease or illness caused by handling an animal."
Especially if you pay your bills doing this, there is no time for being sick or disabled
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Post by Bristleback on Mar 14, 2008 0:40:10 GMT -6
I've posted this before, hoping it would help. I buy 2 different types of Nitrile gloves.......2 grades.....a medium duty and a heavy duty. Med for quick, short term use. Heavier duty ones for the longer tasks. Both are amazingly TOUGH....... I'm one who doesn't normally like gloves........can't say these have ever hindered me while skinning. Try: www.galeton.comI use the #7708 and the 7700......$9 and $9.45 per box, the med duty come 100 per box, HD 50 per box. Hope this helps.
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Post by Stanley on Mar 14, 2008 4:24:53 GMT -6
Latex and Nitrile gloves. I use them for everything. Setting traps and all. I get them at no cost.
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Post by bobwendt on Mar 14, 2008 4:43:12 GMT -6
I must be odd man out. I`ve never worn any gloves and never caught anything from an animal. and been at it 50 years and quantities so large as to boggle the mind and be unbelievable. however, I am rabies vaccinated. I think any trapper that isn`t vacinated is a walking dead man if he fools with skunks or bats in any amount , and to some extent coon, cats and fox. according to cdc in atlanta ga, even otters have a higher rabies incidence than coyotes. so much for the dnr`s playing the "disease" card to stop coyote trans location, while they do their otter thing and their cwd thing and common dogs travel by the millions across state lines.
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Post by castiron on Mar 14, 2008 4:45:50 GMT -6
Do the animals pose any threat other than blood, body fluids? Someone posted that they use face masks. Do the animals pose an airborn threat also? A few years ago these thoughts would not of entered my mind. About two years ago a friend of mine got lymes disease from skinning a deer. It really caused him a lot of problems.
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