Liver Fluke?

[Zass]

Processing a culled purchased doe and found this thing. It's hard feeling, quite firm, but I lost it after the pic was taken, so I didn't get to dissect it. :no:

It looks an awful lot like a liver fluke in shape, though it's outside the liver, and I don't know what texture adult flukes have? They kind of look soft and squishy in the pics I've seen, not hard like this little thing. I've never actually seen one before. Other than that weird thing, the rest of the liver looked perfect. :?

Either way, it scared me quite as bit, as I enjoy rare cooked rabbit liver. Does anyone know if this is a fluke, and also, can you get liver flukes from eating infected livers? Would an infected liver look otherwise perfect? Is there anything else this object could be?

All of the websites on it say this and don't mention cattle, sheep, or rabbit liver as a possible source of infection to humans.

People are infected when they swallow cysts containing fluke larvae in raw, undercooked, dried, salted, or pickled freshwater fish or on contaminated watercress.

From : https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/infec ... -the-liver

-- Sat May 23, 2020 7:30 pm --

I think a fish or snail is necessary in a fluke's life cycle? Is that why we don't worry about getting them from eating liver, and only worry about the larva after they leave their intermediate host? If so, and this IS a fluke, it might still put me off liver for a while...

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

Hard to tell what exacly that was since the picture is a bit too small on my screen. I've never seen a fluke either but trust your judgement, throw away anything you feel isnt looking right.

 

[michaels4gardens]

I have seen something that looks like that ,
but just a couple of times.., and it was not "attached" to the liver, just beside the liver
I believed,... it was somehow related to "used hydrogenated oil" in the feed..
I found those in butchered rabbits ,after I had been feeding pellets that smelled a little like "used fry oil",
-- and again, when I was feeding "used fry oil" as a energy supplement, along with boiled potatoes...
At any rate,... the problem did not continue in either case, after I changed the feed they were eating..

 

[Zass]

Post by KimitsuKouseki » Sun May 24, 2020 2:03 am
Hard to tell what exacly that was since the picture is a bit too small on my screen. I've never seen a fluke either but trust your judgement, throw away anything you feel isnt looking right.

Absolutely. Sorry about the pic quality, it was just what my fiancee snapped with his cell camera real fast during processing. I wanted to dissect it, but it must have gotten wiped up with some blood. It just threw me off because the rest of the animal, including her liver, looked perfect. I did look at A LOT of pictures of liver flukes, and fluke infected livers. It appears they do considerable damage burrowing through the tissue, and not just hang around outside them.

I have seen something that looks like that ,
but just a couple of times.., and it was not "attached" to the liver, just beside the liver
I believed,... it was somehow related to "used hydrogenated oil" in the feed..
I found those in butchered rabbits ,after I had been feeding pellets that smelled a little like "used fry oil",
-- and again, when I was feeding "used fry oil" as a energy supplement, along with boiled potatoes...
At any rate,... the problem did not continue in either case, after I changed the feed they were eating..

Hmm...So it could be something feed related. Thanks, as always, for you're experience and insight. Aside from pictures online, I don't have any frame of reference for "objects" like this..

I am pretty sure it wasn't a fluke at this point. I think I just panicked a bit due to the similar shape.

 

[ladysown]

I don't think it's a fluke, but what it is... I couldn't tell you. Whenever I see anything odd on the internals I toss the internals in the garbage (don't feed to other animals) and give the rest of the of the carcass a very careful going over.