trinityoaks
Well-known member
We have a litter of four crossbreed rabbits we were planning to butcher soon. One has an abcess on its chest. Is it ok to butcher it for human consumption (i.e. would the meat be safe)? Dog consumption?
Can we eat it?
- Thread starter trinityoaks
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I would not feed actual infected tissue even to the dogs but the rest of the rabbit should be fine if the abscess was the result of an external wound. Now if the cause is completely unknown or has the potential to be an internal problem where other areas might have infections it would be a judgement call after butchering and inspecting the meat.
HendricksHearth
Well-known member
I guess I am overly careful, but I won't eat or feed a rabbit with a known health issue that could be pathogenic in nature and that would include abscesses with an unknown cause. Although people usually get them from something like Staph, rabbits can get them from all sorts of different oxygen-needing bacteria including Pasteurella, Strep, Pseudomonas, Staph + a whole host of bacteria that don't need oxygen. I am taking microbiology right now for nursing school and all I can say is there are a lot of bugs in the world that can make us sick if they get past our external defenses that may normally not bother us at all. It might just look like an abscess to the naked eye, but it is possible the blood, filtering organs (liver/spleen in particular), or the other tissues like muscle have been infected with whatever caused the problem. The bun could have been on the way to septic before you butchered, etc.- there really is no way to know, but I would rather be safe than sorry.
Best of luck!
Lauren
Best of luck!
Lauren
