# Spots of rabbit livers



## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

We butchered seven young rabbits yesterday. I was alarmed to see white spots -sort of lumpy-looking - on the livers of three of them. Naturally, I did not save the giblets from those rabbits. 

I know this indicates a problem (coccidiosis?) but since I've never seen it before I thought I would ask how serious this is and how to prevent it in future. The rabbits appeared perfectly healthy and there were no other abnormalities that I could see.


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## rabbitgal (Feb 12, 2005)

Coccidiosis would be my first guess too, especially if these guys were pastured or raised in a colony. I think there's some other things that can cause white spots on the liver though. Don't suppose you took pictures?

You can treat coccidiosis with a poultry coccidistat, but I would get fecal samples and have your vet check them first so you know for sure what you're dealing with.

Nasty...hope you can find out what the problem is!


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

tularemia can cause white spots- wild rabbits


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## bob clark (Nov 3, 2005)

her is a pic of some white spots i found on some of our rabbits liver . I sent this photo to a professor in mississippi and he said it was coccidiosis


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## susieM (Apr 23, 2006)

That's the problem we have here, too.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Thanks, everyone, for the input. I'll tell you it was a bit of a shock. 

Not likely tularemia... It is rare in Ontario and I have not been able to find info about any outbreaks in our area. And the rabbits were showing absolutely no sign of illness.

I think it likely is coccidiosis. Thanks, Bob, for posting the picture... that's about what it looked like. Also found some pictures online. I do feed greens to my rabbits, gathered in our fields, so it is possible that I fed something contaminated. The weather has been particularly wet this past month. I've stopped feeding wild greens for the season... and the rabbits seem quite content to have hay instead.

I still have eight rabbits to process, a few from the same cage and the others adults in individual cages. I'll be watching to see what the livers look like. 

My breeders, two does and a buck, and the latest litter of nine are in the rabbit house and have been separated from the others for the past week. They all seem in excellent health, although one doe is moulting. 

I admit I have never seen such a determinedly filthy litter of rabbits as the ones that the infected ones came from. They seemed to delight in pooping and peeing in their water crock and it didn't seem to matter how often it was cleaned, the next time I went down to the rabbitry it was just as bad.

So what do I need to do, apart from stepping up hygiene in the rabbitry?


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## susieM (Apr 23, 2006)

Treat them with whatever the vet gives you.


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## susieM (Apr 23, 2006)

And hope your chickens don't catch it.


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## Bernadette (Jan 17, 2004)

Maggie, it's not as easy in Ontario as in other places. Check with your feed store and see if the staff there has any suggestions, or if they may have any kind of coccidostat available. About 5 years ago we were still able to purchase Amprolium at the feed stores, but that has since become unavailable. Brenda has a prescription from her farm vet for a coccidiostat called Salinomycine Sodium (same type of thing that is in your medicated chick starter). She sends the prescription through the feed store to the mill and it is added to her feed there. She of course purchases her feed by the ton as she runs 70 does. I think it's far more likely that the coccidiosis comes from them insisting on being dirty than being fed natural greens. I too had a litter this summer that insisted on being dirty. It didn't seem to matter how often I cleaned things up, every morning when I went to the coop they had peed in the feeder. I just can't figure out why. After they went to the butcher, (a government inspected abbatoir with an inspector on site when the butchering is being done - and none of my rabbits were condemned so I don't know what shape their livers were in) I cleaned the cage and all the 'furniture' with water and bleach, and the next batch of growers in that cage are fine. Go figure.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Thanks, Bernadette, for the names of the coccidostats. It IS darned difficult here in Ontario. Vets will not or can not prescribe anything unless they see the animal. I'll check with the feed stores etc. and see what I can come up with. Or perhaps I can order something online. 

I'm hoping the problem is just with that litter. The ones from another cage were fine. I guess I will see what happens when we butcher the others - likely Friday.

Suzie M - My understanding is that coccidiosis is species specific. And in any case my chickens are housed separately from my rabbits and have no contact.


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

Check out www.farmersfarmacy.com. They're in Cambridge, Ontario, and they'll ship out in a day or two. I buy my goat meds from them.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Thanks so much, Pook's Hollow, that's exactly what we need - a Canadian site to order meds for critters online. I think I'll start a separate thread about this so more people will see it. 

I know you have geese and goats, but do you have rabbits too? I can't recall when I've seen you "over here", but I'm awfully glad you stopped in!


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## Bernadette (Jan 17, 2004)

Wow! Perfect! Thanks!


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

Happy to oblige! (Wonder if I can get a commission on all the new business they're going to get?  )

No, I don't have rabbits at the moment. Years ago (maybe 20?), I had Californians for meat. I'd love to get into rabbits again, when I get my barn sorted out and have some room - and can find someone who has good breeding stock. Maybe in the spring.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Well, we finally got the last of the rabbits in the outdoor rabbitry processed. And good news! Only one of the remaining young rabbits had any trace of the spots on its liver - and that was just a single nodule on the lower lobe of the liver. I nearly missed seeing it.

The three adult rabbits that we culled - in separate cages from the youngsters but two of them were the parent rabbits - all had perfect livers. 

I'm not so worried now.


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## Hilda (Sep 10, 2006)

Oh, that's great news! You must be relieved.


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## turtlehead (Jul 22, 2005)

When you butcher an animal and it has spots on the liver, do you still process and eat the meat (but discard the liver) or do you discard the entire animal?


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

We still eat the meat. Coccidiosis is a disease of the liver and intestinal tract. It does not affect the meat. To be on the safe side I discard the heart and kidneys as well as the liver.

In any case, coccidiosis is species specific and as far as I know poses no threat to humans. And the meat is cooked.


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## turtlehead (Jul 22, 2005)

Thanks, MaggieJ. That's what I thought, but better safe than sorry! I appreciate the response.


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## natybear (Mar 26, 2005)

Cocci is specie specific, but a rabbit can incubate a form that affects another specie they just won't be effected by it upon reingestion, thats why people always so chickens can infect rabbits with cocci. THey can, and you won't know it was them, but if chickens scratch through rabbit pool, they can do the same thing. Same with goats and other species too. I had never seen hepatic nodules before, thanks for showing the picture. I think I will google to see if there are other pics of it.


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