Hi Guys:
In the event you lose a buck unexpectedly, the following information should be useful if you wish to draw semen on him. The single most important factor is time, time is of the essence. Here are some guidelines that you might find helpful:
1. Have a styrofoam shipping cooler or six pack cooler, ziplock bags, 1" thick styrofoam cut out to fit the inside of whatever cooler you will use, newspaper, ice or (ice pack) on hand, on the farm. (It may seem like normal everyday stuff that you can find easily but if it ever happens to you, you may have a hard time finding these simple everyday items, my recommendation is to gather it all together and put it aside, just in case)
2. As soon as you find the deer you must grab your kit and proceed to the removal/storage process. Carefully remove the testicles, leaving all the hair, skin etc in-tact. Cut a 3" diameter circle around the skin surrounding entire genital area and carefully cut deeper until I was able to remove the entire sac, the tubes extending into them and the *****. (This is probably taking too much, but I would rather take too much than not enough).
3. Once you removed the testicles, immediately place them into a ziplock bag. Place a ziplock bag filled with ice cubes on the bottom of the cooler and place the 1" thick styrofoam insert over top, followed by 3" of crushed newspaper.
4. Place 3" of crushed newspaper on top of the testicles put the lid on the cooler and immediately place the whole cooler in a refrigerator set at around 40 degrees. (You do not want to freeze the testicles and that is why you later on top of the ice cubes and keep it in the refrigerator, not freezer.)
5. Make immediate arrangements to ship the package by calling the person you use to draw semen, getting the address etc. Important: FedEx it overnight EARLY morning delivery. This is quite expensive but may be worth it depending on the buck you lost.
6. If you can get the package to fedex immediately, do so. If it is late in the day and you have to wait till morning or other circumstances prevent you from getting it there, keep it in the refrigerator until first thing next morning (not adviseable).
7. The next morning, prepare a new ziplock bag with fresh ice and replace the ice you put in the day prior. Reassemble the package as indicated above, tape the seam of the cooler with packing tape or duct tape and get it shipped.
8. Upon receiving the package, your guy will process it to determine the semen quality. You need to then decide if it is worth strawing. (Have an understanding of semen quality and motility etc prior to having to make this decision so you can make it right away.)
I am providing this information as a helpful guide to those of you who might find yourself in the position I was in recently. Since time is so critical, I thought it would be good to share this experience with all of you and to give you some guidance. Being prepared for the unexpected is the best you can do. Have the items you will need on hand just in case, hopefully you will never have to use them.
(I highly recommend that you talk with the person who draws your semen on the protocal he/she prefers. I found that different people followed different protocols. This is the one I used but your person might request it done a different way. Again, being prepared is key.)
I went into this situation completely blind, do not find yourself in that position.
Thanks again for all your help.
