liverfluke

cervushunter

Well-Known Member
Hi morena,
we spoke a while ago and i described what i thought was liverfluke in a roe deer that i shot. Without photos you acknowledged that it probably was and also you said that it was not as common in red, also that if i came across it again that i should take a photo.
Well yesterday morning i had a hind and calf both were in good condition and behaving normally until shot!
Upon inspecting the gralloch of the stag calf i noticed that things were moving on the liver and coming out of the orifices and they were present inside the liver in holes presumable made by the fluke. Stuff of nightmares these little creatures. By the way 30 miles seperates the roe and the red that i have seen it in. Could you confirm that it is liverfluke please
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Also the liver had whitish edges to it and it was smooth to cut through
 
Hi cervushunter,
Thank you for your brilliant photo of as you said liver fluke. This is the best photo I have seen. This is a massive infection and as you say the calf was in good condition so bearing out that reds tolerate a higher burden than roe. You don't get so called pipestem thickening in reds although the adult flukes are not shed so readily as in roe. They hang around longer. This animal was obviously grazing where there is a large population of snails.
Thanks once again for taking the trouble to post.
morena
 
You sure got some fluke there mate :)
Unusual that the liver was smooth to cut though, as the fluke live in the bile ducts thier movment irritates the bile duct walls causing them to calcify which normally gives a gritty feeling when cut into, this is often a good sign a liver is flukey even if there seems to be no fluke present..

NELL
 
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