Snakebit Gobbler...

[Sasha and Abby]

We killed one yesterday that was a light (16lb) bird but had 1 1/4" spurs and nice beard.  We were hunting a blackwater swamp in South Carolina...  Upon cleaning, we noticed that one drumstick was strange looking with globs of rotted looking flesh half dollar sized under the between the skin and meat...  some of the meat was kind of green looking with these globs of nasty looking stuff.  The rest of the bird looked normal and he acted normal. 

We have taken birds that had lots of wounds from spurring...  seen that.  I can't help but believe that this bird was bitten by a snake.  Anyone had similar occurrences ??

[Cottonmouth]

He got injured in a fight. Time to go back and find the one that hooked him.

[J-Shaped]

Killed one this past weekend in TN with one lower leg (meat) that was completely green/yellow and a matching section in the upper breast area near the breast sponge. No obvious punctures from spurs. Have killed numerous ones of the years with various wounds of all types. Something is always trying to get them.

[guesswho]

I'm not sure what happened to yours, but they do live a rough life.  this is the worst one I ever killed. 

[Happy]

This was one I killed last year. Maggots were already inside and eating the leg tissue. Not sure how the original injury occured.

[guesswho]

Looks like a small caliber rifle wound.   No telling though.

[lacire]

The one my son shot this year had one bad green leg looked like it was from getting spurred, two years ago before the season opened we keep seeing a very large tom that was having a hard time walking so we started calling him limpy, he then buddied up with another tom. Opening day it took us about three hours before finely calling them in. He was hobbling towards us as fast as he could a cross a horse pasture with the other tom in tow. My granddaughter shot limpy and I shot the other tom both at about 30yds. Limpy had a lot of his feathers missing and was one ugly old bird but when we butchered him it look like his leg had been messed up for a long time, maybe broken and healed wrong. After watching him for so long we felt kinda bad killing him. Like you said they live a rough life.

[Yoder409]

The one my son shot this year had one bad green leg looked like it was from getting spurred, two years ago before the season opened we keep seeing a very large tom that was having a hard time walking so we started calling him limpy, he then buddied up with another tom. Opening day it took us about three hours before finely calling them in. He was hobbling towards us as fast as he could a cross a horse pasture with the other tom in tow. My granddaughter shot limpy and I shot the other tom both at about 30yds. Limpy had a lot of his feathers missing and was one ugly old bird but when we butchered him it look like his leg had been messed up for a long time, maybe broken and healed wrong. After watching him for so long we felt kinda bad killing him. Like you said they live a rough life.

We have a Limpy, too !!

Last year, first morning, he came in with the bird I shot.  Looking back.......... I probably should have shot Limpy, instead.  But, other than the limp, he was a solid, healthy looking bird.  He probably won't get another pass should he wander into range another time.

[lacire]

The funny thing was Limpy was the lead bird all the way across the field and the way we were lined up I had to shoot the first bird and she had to shoot the second. They came in and at forty yards they saw our decoys set up to our left and made a hard turn towards them. The tom in back now ran in front of Limpy. I said on three, one...two...three... I shot and my bird went down but was flopping, my granddaughter didn't fire, at the sound of the shot Limpy turned and ran the other way about ten yards, looked back, made an about face and hobbled back to kick his buddy when he was down. As Limpy was attacking his buddy my granddaughter shot and down he went. I had been concentrating so hard on my bird when I said three Limpy was lined up perfectly behind a small tree and she couldn't shoot. When we retrieved him she wasn't very happy, he was even uglier close up.