Butchered rabbit

[rebecca100]

I had a rabbit that I knew had bred, but never had her babies. I palpated her and felt a solid lump that just didn't feel right. i assumed it was a large tumor and went ahead and knocked her in the head.(I still feel bad when I butcher one). What I found inside was six dead babies that had been dead for a while at least a couple of weeks. My question is whether the meat is any good or not? Her liver looked healthy as did her coat, but I am worried about infection in her body from carrying the dead babies for so long?

 

[miss_thenorth]

When was she due? My thinking tells me that the body would expell them eventually, yes?
I think it is completely a judgement call on your part, considering that all her organs looked healthy.

If it were me, I woud piece her up and give her to the cats. My cats love it when I do rabbits, and they had a feast last night. I just did the deed on 8 rabbits last night.

 

[Blackbird]

How bright were her eyes and gums before butchering?

If everything outside the womb area and reproductive area looks good and healthy, I say keep the meat. I'm going to assume that it would be cooked anyway..

I might worry about giving it to the cats.. if you wouldn't eat it for worry of getting sick, whats saying your cats won't get sick.

I wouldn't feel bad about butcherign her, chances are she might have had future reproducing problems anyway, based on them rotting inside.

 

[rebecca100]

My dh made me throw it out. She seemed fine. It looked as though she couldn't pass them. She had been due about three weeks ago. I fed it to the dogs since my dh refused to eat it or let his kids eat it. I believe that she was going to die once infection set in from the rotting kits though. They were fully developed babies about the right size to be born and this was not her first litter, nor was she bred to a larger buck. he was the same size as her. Which makes me wonder what happened. Maybe I'll post this on BYH.

 

[rebecca100]

Looked it up and i believe that it was an ectopic pregnancy as someone on BYH suggested.

 

[kenman]

I had a doe that went through a similar situation. I had read that if a doe takes the first time, she wouldn't allow a buck to bred her again. I put her with the buck and he bred her. Then two weeks later I put her back in with the buck. She raised for him and and she then was double-bred. I didn't know it of course. She went full term and then some. I could see the babies moving when she lay on her side. Then they stopped. I waited a couple of months figuring she would either get an infection and die, or absorb them and live and maybe re-breed. After two months I put her back in with buck, she took, and 31 days later she had 7 kits. She raised five of them. She had several litters for me, nothing spectacular but at least she paid for her keep. She died during the heat last summer as a two year old. Looking back, I think I should have went ahead and culled her when she had the problems. And no, I wouldn't have eat her either. I have to many young healthy rabbits to eat.