The worst smell ever?

Currently my vote goes for the freezer that lost power a few weeks back. Unfortunately the death was not noticed until we smelled it. The power source was switched but obviously it was too little, too late. We finally dealt with it today. It contained, among other things:

Some samples from the beaked whales that got sonar-d in the Bahamas on March 15, 2000
A neonate harbor porpoise that was killed by J pod last summer
An adult Dall's porpoise

All of the above were in pretty bad shape, and just one drop of the goo we had to deal with will pretty much ruin any item of clothing and anything that clothing touches, including whomever is wearing the clothing. Even through gloves my hands had a lingering funk to them that only went away after about 22 washings with gojo and a shower.

That being said, there's something quite fun about taking a power saw to the body of a dead whale (see my avatar) and at least the eagles and vultures like the leftovers.

I don't think I've smelt anything worse than rotten eggs.
If there's far worse smells than that, then I haven't lived a full life.

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Originally Posted by Nick Pappagiorgio

I don't think I've smelt anything worse than rotten eggs.
If there's far worse smells than that, then I haven't lived a full life.

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If I had the option of cleaning rotten eggs out of said freezer instead of rotting whale, I'd have taken the eggs in a heartbeat.

Fresh dead whale, like anything fresh and dead, is no problem. There's something about marine mammal that just goes bad once they start to go. Rotting terrestrial mammals don't even come close.

I'm not saying these outrank dead whale, but the worst thing I've smelled is throat nuggets. I dont't know what the medical term is for these, but they are the little white mushy nuggets that sometimes form in the cavities (I think in the tonsels) in your throat. They can actually make your throat hurt. Sometimes you can fish them out with a long toothpick and a flashlight in the mirror. When you smush them in your fingers and smell them, well, it's somehow different and worse than shit. I don't know what exacty they are made of, and I don't know if I want to.

bossass wins. :eek:

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Originally Posted by hop

If I had the option of cleaning rotten eggs out of said freezer instead of rotting whale, I'd have taken the eggs in a heartbeat.

Fresh dead whale, like anything fresh and dead, is no problem. There's something about marine mammal that just goes bad once they start to go. Rotting terrestrial mammals don't even come close.

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You got a point. I still put rotten eggs over rotten cadavers, although that 400-lb Samoan I had to dissect back in dental school was pretty fucking rancid. You never got used to that stench...even after 18 weeks * 8 hours a week. Most important part was the neck region, and this guy had no fucking neck. :nonono2:

You did not smell what I just cleaned out of my sons diaper. Nasty.

Kid's diaper is one thing... someone ELSE'S kid's diaper takes nasty to a whole new level. Not that I don't love my niece but SERIOUSLY... Aunties have to draw the line and this one drew it there...

My dogs diarrhea early in the morning.

Dead humans. Helped work a several day old airplane crash in August where 3 people died. Vultures had visited. My worst.

Ken

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Originally Posted by bossass

I'm not saying these outrank dead whale, but the worst thing I've smelled is throat nuggets. I dont't know what the medical term is for these, but they are the little white mushy nuggets that sometimes form in the cavities (I think in the tonsels) in your throat. They can actually make your throat hurt. Sometimes you can fish them out with a long toothpick and a flashlight in the mirror. When you smush them in your fingers and smell them, well, it's somehow different and worse than shit. I don't know what exacty they are made of, and I don't know if I want to.

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I know exactly what you're talking about. Nobody has ever told me what they are.

Tonsil Stones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsillolith

I had an old roommate unplug a freezer with an elk in it. I didn't find out about that one for a few weeks. That has to be the worst smell I've ever experienced.

The other day: 500 lb lady living in 3rd floor of an apartment building. She has been sitting in her wheelchair for probably 3 days, maybe longer, shitting and pissing herself. And she might be in heart failure. She can't walk and we have to get her out. When I lifted her 100 lb legs on the stretcher, goddamn, one nostril full of that and you are toast...
And she was wearing a dress, just so you get the full picture. :eek:

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Originally Posted by natty dread

The other day: 500 lb lady living in 3rd floor of an apartment building. She has been sitting in her wheelchair for probably 3 days, maybe longer, shitting and pissing herself. And she might be in heart failure. She can't walk and we have to get her out. When I lifted her 100 lb legs on the stretcher, goddamn, one nostril full of that and you are toast...
And she was wearing a dress, just so you get the full picture. :eek:

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Ummm....Wow. Gross.

Thanks for the details.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by natty dread

The other day: 500 lb lady living in 3rd floor of an apartment building. She has been sitting in her wheelchair for probably 3 days, maybe longer, shitting and pissing herself. And she might be in heart failure. She can't walk and we have to get her out. When I lifted her 100 lb legs on the stretcher, goddamn, one nostril full of that and you are toast...
And she was wearing a dress, just so you get the full picture. :eek:

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Add to that a GI bleed, yeah thats why I carry vicks vaporub in my turnout pants.

The story I told to some mags the other day may cross the line even for this place.

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Originally Posted by flykdog

The story I told to some mags the other day may cross the line even for this place.

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I could cross the line, my friend. Oh yes, I could.:D

There are two groups of folks I don't share gross-out stories with... ever: Nurses and EMTs. 'Nuff said.

Point being: You win. Thank you for doing what you do - I could not.

One of the houses I lived in during college didn't have a sealed crawlspace. So we came home from spring break to this absolutely repulsive smell. I mean, worse than anything I could have ever imagined. And we had no idea what it was or where it was coming from. After about a week we called our landlord, and they sent someone under the house to look. Guy found a dead cat - said it had probably been down there for a month+. So the smell gradually went away ... and then it got worse again. We called the landlords again, dude came back, found ANOTHER dead cat in the same place.
Fortunately that was it - we couldn't have stood any more of that.

Ok I'm at work right now and this thread is quite a coincidence. I went "exploring" tonight during a slow period and went to visit some of the older, upper levels of the mine that haven't been active since around 1993 or so. I found an old office room up there and it had a fridge. I HAD to open it :nonono2: Whenever that lunch room became inactive (likely layoffs around 1993) no one bothered to remove the food. One of the worst things I've ever smelled.

For me, the worst smell is "dead things Mikey, dead things"

But, I have it on very good authority that the worst smell in the world is hemorrhaging blood. I am not sure about this, and never will be, but these people know such things, and I do not doubt them.


Also, this probably smelled really bad:
http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/C..._8a.hlarge.jpg

Storyhere

While not necessarily gross, the one smell I absolutely detest is that of cyclohexane. My worst nightmare would have that smell in it.

my brother's dog used to have an uncanny ability to find dead seals. i never new there could be so many but it seemed like every time we went to the shore that damn dog would find one.

and roll in it. so, yeah, i have to agree with the marine mammal thing.

go to the store, pick up styrofam container of nightcrawlers, get to the river, decide it's too damn hot to fish, and go for a swim with some of the cute girls populating the area. Come back hours and hours later to the styrofoam container, that baked in the sun all day, open it up. Liquid nightcrawlers is the worst smell ever

There was a dead skunk that out-stunk all dead skunks on the road a few weeks ago. It was like spacetime itself was distorted. My head started twisting around... A few hours later my nose was still burning.

When I lived in Alabama, my brother's dog would sometimes get into dead fish and such floating in the water of Mobile Bay. There was one time when he came back stinking and such... well, I was sitting about 10-12 feet away from him and he shifted, and I gagged, it was so bad. So I took him up to the shower and scrubbed him for about 30-40 minutes. Still reeked. Perfume did the trick.

Dead shrimp a week old are pretty bad, too. I've never smelled a dead marine mammal, but rotten fish, shrimp, etc. are certainly far worse than any land animal.

expressing a dog's anal glands - holy fucking shit. that smells so terrible.

the joys of being with a vet.

Ass mucus. in 7 years as an EMT, it is the only thing that has almost made me puke.

Probably 7220 after lunch, according to PF and himself.....

Shitting after being on painkillers for an extended period of time comes to mind. If you make yourself gag you know it's bad:nonono2: