Can I Suck Some Blood From Your Deer?

Nothing turns more heads than a college student with her hand up a deers butt in broad daylight. Quite frankly, I'm pretty sure that sight would draw just about anyone's attention. It was October 30th, opening day for the deer season for Maine residents. The weather was perfect for hunting: chilly with slight wind gusts. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a dusting of snow. Due to the perfect hunting conditions, it also proved to be the perfect day for us students.
 Our job for the day was to collect 5mL of blood from each deer carcass to send out for testing. We were testing for EEE (Eastern Equine Encephalitis), an aborovirus found in Maine in prior years. Due to the outbreak of the virus in horses, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) asked us students to sample deer blood to test for the possible virus. Since it is hard to get blood samples from live deer (unless you drop a net on them and tackle them), biologists get most of their deer health and age data from deer taken during hunting season. Hence, the CDC teamed up with Maine biologists to acquire disease data from the whitetail deer population.
After a brief lesson on how to accurately collect and store blood from deer, I was left to collect the data. Deer piled up at the gas station as the morning went on; some small does, and some decent sized bucks. Most were stored the the back of pickup trucks and on trailers, which were easy to access, but one was stored on the back of a jeep. Now, the back of a jeep wouldn't be so bad, except that it was slouched over the man's spare tire. All the blood had dripped from the body cavity from transportation, but there seemed to be a consistent amount dripping straight from the deer's butt.
Normal people would just say screw this and walk away. But, since I'm a disease-obsessed nerd, I obviously needed to obtain that sample. For some reason, shoving my hand up a deer's butt was worth it to me. I brushed off any amount of pride I had left in me and rolled my brand new ski jacket up, hoping that it wouldn't dip into the dripping blood, though knowing that my optimism would soon be replaced with a poop covered, bloody jacket.
So, there I stood, my arm reaching up a butt so I could suck 5mL of blood from the deer. All I could think about was the scene from Dr. Dolittle with the doctor and the dog (I don't know if anyone knows what I'm talking about) and how I used to cringe at it when I was little, saying "ewwww thats sooooooo grooosss!". Little did I know that 15 years later, I would be imitating the scene on a larger scale.
Maine residents are known to be awefully funny sometimes. I mean, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but some people have just been in the woods for waaayyyy too long. Some people just moved to Maine to be left alone and not have to be bothered with weirdos from the city, or in my case, Western Massachusetts. I have been given weird looks in the grocery store while buying nailpolish and organic foods, things that seem pretty normal to me. Can you imagine the looks these people were giving me with my hand up an ass? I mean, I'm sure your face right now is grimaced into a pretty odd fashion. Imagine someone who already thinks pretty normal people are weird.
It was like the circus for the town-folk. Cars slowed, traffic congested, people were both hysterical with laughter and gagging in disgust. Luckily, after a moment, the butt blood was sucked, and the freak show was over.

At the end of the day, I successfully got blood from 36 deer, only missing 5 of the 41 they tagged at the store that day (I felt like I deserved a pumpkin spice latte for lunch after having my head in a carcass all morning). It was a lot of fun, though very bloody, gory, and stinky. I met some interesting people, to say the absolute least, and some impressive Maine hunting guides.
One week later, I went along for another blood sucking experience. Though nothing quite as eventful occurred, I had to learn how to hold a flashlight (it gets dark way too early), deer ribcage, syringe, and blood vial all at the same time. After shoving the flashlight in my mouth and the vial in my armpit, I managed to somehow get blood from 8 deer.
For the season, I collected 44 blood samples from only 2 days of sampling. Not too bad, if you ask me. For further questions about EEE in Maine, visit Maine Fish and Wildlife Press Releases.