Bunnies last night

CJhaughey

A neighbour has a problem with rabbits, I went over and helped him out.
I left another 4-5 in the field, many of these had spotted livers and I was a bit suspect.

Mods can one of you put this in the Photos:hunting section please?
My mistake sorry...

Vegeta

Very nice little rifle what is that??

rrpc

CJhaughey wrote:

Mods can one of you put this in the Photos:hunting section please?
My mistake sorry...

CJ, could you do a little aftermarket work on your photos please? 1.06Mb is a non-runner for anyone not on broadband and you don't need it to be that big for the net.

kiwijbob

CJhaughey wrote:

many of these had spotted livers

were they white/cream spots? I've seen this but I don't have a clue
what it means, I haven't eaten them but I'd rather not have to throw
them away..

kiwijbob

maybe this could be the problem?

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12150_12220-26630--,00.html

rrpc

That link is incomplete. Nothing coming up.

yank_in_eire

I'm not sure if it's the same over here, but back home in the states cream spots on a rabbit's liver meant it was infected with tularemia. It's a rather nasty bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans through handling infected rabbits or eating insufficiently cooked rabbit meat. It can be cured with antibiotics, and you're usually immune to any future infection. Best to wear rubber gloves (get out yer pink marigolds lads) when handling any wild rabbits and don't keep any with dodgy liver spots.:cool:

fat-tony

No it's not Tularemia - that link is about tapeworm in rabbits.

CJhaughey

Sorry for the bandwidth hogging pic, I upped the pic first thing this morning at work and the whole network was down all day!!, this is the first time I have had a chance to rework it .... I have dial-up at home too;)
The rifle is a well used Anschutz 1416 with the horrible gloss finish sanded off and oiled instead.
scope is an old Nikko Stirling 4x 32.
I don't like the idea of eating anything with something wrong inside, the livers are a dead giveaway, some were mottled and others had white patches, either way the go back to nature.
The majority of these came from one big field that had been cut for silage and sprayed with slurry, I conservatively estimate that there were probably 30+ rabbits in that one field.
Now of course there are a few tenants less....

Keelan

Good work, love rabbits, great in a cassarole and stir fry, with uncle bens.:D
The white spots are liver flukes, just tape worm cysts, take them out and dont worry, eat away.
I was out last saturday with .22 rifle aswell, a CZ 452 .22lr, great rifle for the price.
Pic below, done a wee bit of ferreting too, farmer over run with the little critters.

All the best,

Keelan.

stevoman

i was out on sunday evening. i shot five but one of them had the dreaded mixy. i got him buried straight away. has anyone else come across it much or the VHD around? i noticed there wasnt so many rabbits as usual but i was out around midday so they could have been in their warrens. i made a lovely rabbit stew with rashers, all the veg sauted in honey and stewed in cider. it was lovely. bit too much garlic though!

kiwijbob

kiwijbob wrote:

maybe this could be the problem?

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12150_12220-26630--,00.html

michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12150_12220-26630--,00.html

thats the full link, just put the www before. it seems to of been shortened?

Paddy Diver

Havnt shot any bunnies yet, still getting used to the gun but how do you tell if they have "mixy" (sorry cant spell the word fully!)

stevoman wrote:

one of them had the dreaded mixy. !

Ian

kiwijbob

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

haven't actually seen one myself but I'm sure a more experienced
bunny hunter than I can give you a one line explanation

mallards

The last time I saw a mixy rabbit was about 10 years ago. The head is usually swollen especially around the eyes. The rabbit actually looks sick. It remains hudled and you can walk right up to them in its latter stages. The rabbit also could be sitting out in the open and I had a problem with my dogs just retrieving them like dummys. I had to end my walk early as I must have put 30 out of their misery in about 20 mins. Dreadful disease.

Mallards.

Trojan911

CJhaughey wrote:

A neighbour has a problem with rabbits, I went over and helped him out.

Nice shooting....... A contribution to the local community is always well received....


TJ911...

stevoman

kiwijbob wrote:

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

haven't actually seen one myself but I'm sure a more experienced
bunny hunter than I can give you a one line explanation

you'l know one when you shoot one thats a fact. mallards got it right they just look plain sick. they have bad growths over their eyes and basically look riddled with the desease. its not the end of the world though. the rabbits are overcoming it and becoming emune to it and in cases i have heard of ditches being hunted and on one side everyone of them could have it and you could go over to the next ditch and not one will have it. if you do shoot one always bury him if you can and if you cant take him as far away from the warren as you can. get rid of him on the way home where you know no rabbits are living, otherwise if you leave him it just spreads more desease

CJhaughey

Trojan911 wrote:

Nice shooting....... A contribution to the local community is always well received....


TJ911...

Yes I look at it like this, if you are asked to help out by removing some animals , you do so.
Farmer 1 will in all likelihood talk to Farmer 2 and tell him how he now has a lot less rabbits and Farmer 2 may engage you to help him too!
Works well for all parties.

the hunter

stevoman wrote:

you'l know one when you shoot one thats a fact. mallards got it right they just look plain sick. they have bad growths over their eyes and basically look riddled with the desease.

i shot one a couple weeks ago it was still fairly alert and all one side of its face was covered in tumours/lumps . like stevoman said you'll know when you see it ??

Vegeta

Keelan wrote:

Good work, love rabbits, great in a cassarole and stir fry, with uncle bens.:D
The white spots are liver flukes, just tape worm cysts, take them out and dont worry, eat away.
I was out last saturday with .22 rifle aswell, a CZ 452 .22lr, great rifle for the price.
Pic below, done a wee bit of ferreting too, farmer over run with the little critters.

All the best,

Keelan.

great shooting there

stevoman

has anybody come across any more rabbits with mixy latley. i was out after a few sunday evening and the population has dropped dramatically and for every rabbit i set my sights on with the scope about half of them were riddled really badly with it so they were. i guess all the bad weather this year pushed them undergroung alot more spreading it like wildfire.

macnab

I have noticed a huge fall off in numbers in the last month too. I used to get 8 or 9 bunnies for a couple of hours of walking, now its usually 2 per outing. I shot one last week that I think had Mixy, runny eyes, slow mover etc. Its the first sick Bunny I have seen since I started shooting last February.

CJhaughey

Yep not a whole lot around me anymore, that is probably due to me as well! I shot 5 last night but there doesn't seem to be half as many as there was when I started this thread.

Trojan911

stevoman wrote:

has anybody come across any more rabbits with mixy latley.

Came across three in the last week over on one particular famers land other than that have not seen it for a couple of years.....


TJ911...