Tularemia?

[SimoneBird]

Has anyone on the board ever had Tularemia? And has anyone ever heard of a falconry bird getting it? My bird caught a rabbit today and it looked just like every other rabbit he's caught. I fed him a leg off it and then after hooding him opened it up and it looked really bad. Totally spotted liver, lungs where white instead of pink and it had other weird looking stuff. I had already touched it but it looked so bad that we buried it. Now I wonder if I should have brought it back to get it tested or something. Anyway, just wondering if anyone has dealt with it before. Here's a picture of the liver:

Probably time to go call a doc...

[HawkingRage]

I have seen this before a good 5 times at least. The spots where not that small and abundant as your pics though it did look similar. I did not feed that rabbit either, left in the feild for coyotes.

I do know of a guy in the Colorado Hawking Club last season that got Tularemia and it jacked him up real good. he got it in november and spent a good month and a half in the hospital and never fully recovered till late april. He says he wished that he would have died when it was kicking his butt. He did recover and just trapped himself a bird recently hoping to be able to continue in falconry.

Id say that you really dont want to get sick from this. If you ever find something wrong with your prey pitch it and count it as natural selection. Dont feed it to your bird if you wouldnt eat it yourself is my opinion on the matter.

Good Job Simon for burring the animal.

[pecmoney]

I cut myself on a rabbit bone today skinning it... nothing wrong with the rabbit but is there any thing i can do watch out for signs of this?

[Falcon Boy]

www.beaglesunlimited.net/rabbithunting_tularemia.htm

[SimoneBird]

Hey Rage, thanks for the info. I went to the doctor yesterday and I'm on antibiotics as a preventative. You're right, definitely not a disease to mess around with. This is the first rabbit I've ever seen that looked like that and I hope I don't run into it again. There are a few cases of it in our state every year though and last year there was one in our county. I also called my vet and she did some research and could not find anything about birds being at risk for Tularemia. Whew.

[HawkingRage]

No sweat, keep caution.

Pecmoney- ive learned that as a falconer if you feel sick at any time durring the hunting season to take it seriously. Go to the doctor and let them know what you are exposed to like the plague or any other desease. if you dont you might pay for it later and the doctor might go through tons of tests to find what ails you.

[pecmoney]

Will do. Thanks