# Rabbit parasites?



## JD252438 (Feb 3, 2010)

I recently moved to texas and it seems like almost all the rabbits I kill(which is very few) have a bump on them that is similar to a tumor that has an orange gooey fluid with a grub that is about an inch long and is fat. I like hunting rabbits but if 3 out of 4 rabbits I kill have this parisite in them and I cant eat them it kind of makes me not want to hunt them. The grub is on the out side of the muscles and is just inside the skin. Does anyone no what this is?


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## Tagz (Sep 22, 2005)

Sounds like bot-fly larva. Pretty common. You can cut out the area the grub is at, the rest of the rabbit is fine. 



> One form of external parasite that you may encounter on rabbits is known as the Warble-fly or Bot-fly (Cuterebra cuniculi). It is actually the larval "grub" of this fly that is quite unpleasant to look at. The warble-fly larvae burrow into the flesh and can be found in the neck, spine and groin region of the rabbit. The grub lives under the skin of cottontails until it develops into an adult fly. The grub is black in color and about one inch in length. It is one half to an inch wide, has a segmented appearance and is covered with short, black bristles. The larval grub does not lessen food quality of the meat except at the point of contact. Remove the small area of affected flesh that was around the grub and the rest of the meat will be perfectly edible!


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