When processing rabbit to eat I have noticed a worm on the liver. According to Encyclopedia of Country Living it is ok to eat the rabbit just throw away the liver. Is this correct? I think the worm is a fluke?

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), July 27, 2001

Answers

as long as the meat is fully cooked,, your fine. Assumeing your talking about a domecticly raised rabbit. Wild rabbit you should wait till the fall

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), July 27, 2001.

Stan's right. But if it's a rabbit you raised, you obviously need to think about your cultural practices - it wouldn't be right to go on raising animals under conditions you knew were making them parasite- laden.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 27, 2001.

Don, could you expand on what you mean? Is there a way to deworm a rabbit?

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), July 28, 2001.

I was talking in general - farmed rabbits I don't know, although I've certainly dealt with enough of the wild (feral) kind. However, there are certainly ways to control parasites in most stock - I'd be surprised if that didn't apply to rabbits too.

Expert comment from those who know rabbits, please.

One comment though - every liver fluke I've ever heard of came from a damp environment. Many/most have snails of some kind as an alternate host, then stock pick up the flukes either from water, or from vegetation grown in wet conditions.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 29, 2001.

I'd be interested in knowing why not to eat wild rabbits until the fall? What happens then? Or what is wrong with them in spring and summer? How about in winter?

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), July 29, 2001.

Dear Joy, I have never known why, I just have always been told that wild meat of any kind should not be eaten till the fall. It is rather confusing though because if you are pasturing your rabbits as we are, or say even chickens I am not sure I understand the difference. Maybe someone else can answer this one.

Don, we do not live in a damp area, so I am not sure about what else could be causing them as I have not even seen a snail, maybe I would not though. Our soil is sandy and drains really well. Any other ideas?

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), July 30, 2001.

Ivomec (Ivermectin)

The oral does is 0.10 cc

Drug dosage calculator for Rabbits

http://www.morfz.com/rx/drugcalc.html

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), July 30, 2001.

I use to hunt the wild rabbits a lot and I do know that during the warmer weather rabbits have a lot of parasites. The main one is worms that infest the entrails. I don't know why but they really seem to be much thicker in the early fall than winter. The worms are not in the meat itself, but infested all around inside the cavity. When you gut them open and see the mass amount of worms it will give you second thoughts about whether you would want to eat the rabbit or not. Some are still present even in the dead of winter. I haven't done it, but I've heard that you can eat the young small rabbits and they are not badly infested. Here in Oklahoma rabbit season doesn't start until October, thats why I haven't ate a young rabbit yet.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), July 30, 2001.

Wild rabbits should not be hunted for food until after the first HARD freeze. The first freeze kills off the sick ones. Yes, cooking kills parasites and such, but butchering is the hazard here. Tularemia is a bacteria in wild rabbits that can be transmitted to the butcher. sickies die, and no more hazard to our butcher! Carol

-- carol (fchambers@mail.janics.com), July 31, 2001.

Re: worms in wild rabbits.

In addition to stomach worms and rabbit fever, wild rabbits are susceptible to the same grubs that cattle get, the ones farmers call "wolves" that burrow through the nerve and muscle tissue and finally pupate just under the skin of the back. A knot with a scab over it will disclose a fat grub in the flesh just under the skin, the larvae of a fly. No such problem in winter.

Mac

-- Mac (Macrocarpus@gbronline.com), September 23, 2001.

I live in Iowa and I've heard the saying all my life that you should only hunt rabbits, pheasants and the like in months that have an R in their name. So nothing after April or before September. Don't know if it's true at all but seems to be the standard hunters around here follow.

-- Anna in Iowa (countryanna54@hotmail.com), September 23, 2001.

Carol is right. The reason for waiting until after a few hard freezes to eat wild rabbits is because during the summer tularemia (rabbit fever; also, according to my research, one of the germs that could potentially be used in biological warfare) builds up in the rabbit population. After a few hard freezes the sick rabbits will have pretty much died off. But never eat a rabbit (or any other animal) that appears to be sick. Cooking will kill the tularemia germs, but during the butchering process they can enter any small cuts or breaks in the skin, and then you end up with the disease yourself. I don't think cage-raised domestic rabbits that have never been on the ground or in contact with a wild rabbit are likely to get it, though.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 23, 2001.