clear blobby things in wild rabbit guts

The picture is of liver, but they were in other places too -- probably a dozen in the gut cavity. Liver just makes for the clearest picture. All of them about the same size, clearish, with one white internal bit like a corn kernel.

This is only my second rabbit, so if this is something that is in most rabbits, don't laugh.





So what are these?

And if they're not normal, are they bad?

Don't freak out, read to the bottom where it says that humans can't get infected from rabbits and cooking kills most of these if you don't manually remove them when dressing the meat. However, it looks like a variety of tapeworm.

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10370_12150_12220-26630--,00.html

not normal in any that I have cleaned but don't know what they are a link to what I found on google ( < http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0756e/t0756e09.htm > )look down about mid way says tape worms

This is right up my alley........veterinary. Those fluid filled cysts contain immature tapeworms. They are an intermediate stage in the lifecycle of the parasite. Once the rabbit is consumed by a predator, say a dog or coyote, the tapeworm completes its next life stage and matures into an adult tapeworm in the dog/coyote's gut.

If you look closely, you can actually see the "head" of the immature tapeworm inside the bubble-like cyst. It is the white dot. Eating these can infest a human only if the rabbit is consumed fresh-raw. Cooking kills the tapeworm. Although I don't remember rabbit parasitology class anymore, I would think that smoking/drying the meat would also kill the tapeworm, such as in making jerky. But I'm not sure.

The rabbit is safe to eat if thoroughly cooked. I would cut out visible cysts just because of the yuck factor. But be aware that there may be some that are small enough to be unnoticed, so don't lick the blood off your fingers or sample a piece of raw liver after dressing out your rabbit. While most tapeworms are fairly host specific, humans have been found to be infected by an assortment of cross species parasites, including tapeworm.

As you noticed, the cysts are commonly located in the liver, but also other locations in the gut. At times they can be located in the muscle, unnoticed. Thus the need to cook the meat.

Well, I guess I'm going to need dewormer for my dog, since he begged scraps. Whoops. I'm glad it's human-safe when cooked, and I haven't wasted my time with cutting it up, at least! Thanks for knowing what they were so quickly.

Yup, tapeworm cysts. My guess would be hydatid tape worm. These cause "sheep measles". Imagine dressing a sheep and the carcass is covered inthe same little cysts, looking like a naked body covered with measles!

Transmission usually goes infected rabbit killed by carnivore, carnivore eats encysted offal, carnivore becomes infected and hosts larvae to infective stage, carnivore deposits infective segments in feces on ground, infective segments attach to grass, herbivore consumes the infective larval stage off of grass and continues circle.

https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/sites/gateway/files/styles/original/public/hydatid-lifecycle-diagram.jpg?itok=Zkhrdw03

In the future boil the offal before feeding it to poochie. Fendbendazole will do the job on tape worms. Safeguard, etc. Make sure to follow the multi day duration.

going to be raising in the future, so is there a natural way to deworm them?

Absolutely tape worms. K9 variety. You'll be fine. I know this because we discovered it, squeezed one and it GOT IN MY MOUTH. So we had them tested. lol