bunny liver disease?

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bunny liver disease?
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wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 07 3:29 pm Post subject: bunny liver disease?

hoping for some help from a seasoned rabbit for the pot shooter...
I just cleaned a rabbit ( acquired from local butcher - pee out , but innards intact, skin on. ) I've always been told to inspect the liver before proceeding to the pot which I did, having skinned him and cleaned him up no problems there but the liver has some hard whitish-yellow lumps on it about the size of flour crumbs before sifting ie 1 mm ish . although the colour is what I'd expect - reddish brown and smooth textured.
I've already decided this one is probably best stewed and used for dog food, but we're doing rabbits tomorrow night in my wild food class, and wondered what I should tell the class if another bunny has the same liver problem? is it a recognised disease and am I right in believing you shouldn't eat an animal with a diseased liver?
tia

pricey

Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 6444

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 07 5:31 pm Post subject:
Fat, Calcium? never inspected any that closely they are normally in the Pan before that I don't think that the Rabbit would be bad though. Someone is going to put me right on that no doubt

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18415

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 07 5:34 pm Post subject:
I thought fat too, the same way it accumulates round kidneys. Hard to think what habits rabbits have that would give them liver disease.

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 07 5:52 pm Post subject:
yes fat it could be, its the right colour. the lumps go right the way through the liver with sort of minute stringy bits connecting them to the liver tissue. I've got it in the fridge, might try and do a photo fwiw.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 07 6:01 pm Post subject:
Sounds like it could be fat. We had a batch of chickens once that I overfed with corn - their livers had similar-sounding spots, and overall had a rather yellowish tinge, rather than the deep red that we normally get. They made fantastic p�t�! Did you get any noticeable fat on the rabbit carcase?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 07 6:37 pm Post subject:
Any chance it could be some form of parasite, a worm cyst or rabbit Coccidiosis (one type affects the liver), or even something like Viral Haemorrhagic Disease. Might be worth having a google and comparing any pictures to the liver you've got and hopefully confirm it's just fat!

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 07 7:50 pm Post subject:
no definitely not like the pic of Coccidiosis I also found a sort of lesion /blister inside the liver, about 1cm long, sort of garden slug shaped.... difficult to remove intact - it burst while I was trying and seemed to contain blood or watery blood type stuff. Nothing like I've ever seen before.. the photo's aren't great - too much artificial light.

moonwind

Joined: 10 Sep 2006
Posts: 1140

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 07 9:24 pm Post subject:
Liver Fluke?

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 07 11:12 am Post subject:
It may well be liver fluke - don't eat it. A nasty little parasite - and you don't want your own liver to end up looking like that. Burn or bury the thing. The rest of the bunny will be ok though. You sometimes get them if the rabbits were taken where there are sheep or cattle - especially if the ground is a bit marshy.

KILLITnGRILLIT

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 894
Location: Looking at a screen in the front room

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 07 9:27 pm Post subject:
If it`s like the LHS liver then it`s liver fluke..........

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 07 10:41 am Post subject:

thanks everyone, most helpful suggestions. Killitngrillit's LH pic ilooks very similar, but liver fluke pics on the web show dark mottling patches on the liver. But hard to say what stage of the infection it is.
I found this whilst researching coccidiosis
https://www.vetclinpathjournal.org/VOL30_OPEN/VCP3002_57-61.pdf
the second paragraph of the intro describes what I think I found. here's a couple of not very good pix - you can see the blister/ lesion thingy in the second pic.

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 07 11:14 am Post subject:

gil wrote:

I thought fat too, the same way it accumulates round kidneys.
Hard to think what habits rabbits have that would give them liver disease.

A night on the town?

I would say fat. We get losts of yellow fat on ours but they are fed corn amongst other stuff which I know causes yellow fat in chickens. I know nothing of wild rabbits, sorry.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 07 12:00 pm Post subject:

wildfoodie wrote:

you can see the blister/ lesion thingy in the second pic.

Is the brown lump the gall bladder?

KILLITnGRILLIT

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 894
Location: Looking at a screen in the front room

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 07 2:37 pm Post subject:
T - Yes that`s the gall bladder and needs to be removed carefully if you intend to eat the liver.

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 07 6:13 pm Post subject:

Quote:

Yes that's the gall bladder and needs to be removed carefully if you intend to eat the liver.

should've paid more attention in those biology lessons..

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