Rabbits and flea's

[chelsea7513]

Hey guys,
I've always brought rabbits home and prep them outside before bringing them indoors to chill etc.
A big permission I picked up not so long ago, a couple of the rabbits I shot were massively infested with flea's. Now I know they can carry flea's, but I have rabbits (pets) and cats, and didn't like to bring them home in risk passing them on to our pets!
Is there a best practice of dealing with flea's on shot rabbits? I gut them fresh then normally wait till I get home to finish prep. Could I come home and chuck them ( just gutted ) whole into the freezer ? Would that kill the flea's to be then able to handle the rabbits say within 3 hours before they freeze?

Just wondered what you guys do and if I'm missing a hack!

 

[Trigger260]

I take a clean plastic tub and skin them before i head home. Saves having to deal with the skins

 

[shakey jake]

freezing to well below zero should kill them, i never had an issue with rabbit fleas getting on my dogs or ferrets. catfleas are not very fussy about hosts but i think rabbit fleas want to only live on rabbits. if your pets are treated with a decent insecticide they should die any way

 

[Buchan]

Hey guys,
I've always brought rabbits home and prep them outside before bringing them indoors to chill etc.
A big permission I picked up not so long ago, a couple of the rabbits I shot were massively infested with flea's. Now I know they can carry flea's, but I have rabbits (pets) and cats, and didn't like to bring them home in risk passing them on to our pets!
Is there a best practice of dealing with flea's on shot rabbits? I gut them fresh then normally wait till I get home to finish prep. Could I come home and chuck them ( just gutted ) whole into the freezer ? Would that kill the flea's to be then able to handle the rabbits say within 3 hours before they freeze?

Just wondered what you guys do and if I'm missing a hack!

-18C is the often quoted figure for killing parasites in wild animals intended for food. I've just been writing a risk assessment based on this, but cna't find hard evidence why -18C

 

[finbar]

I find that they normally gather on the ears if so a just cut the ears of ferrets don’t seem bothered by them

 

[Cottis]

I sell rabbits to a ferret guy. I just shoot them and put them in a lidded box in the truck so the fleas don't get everywhere and then bring them inside and chuck the lot straight in to my chest freezer (which admittedly is only for rabbits) No idea how long it takes as they stay in there for ages until the ferret guy picks them up but time below freezing definitely kills them.

Rabbit fleas tend to congregate only on or around the ears as @finbar says. They get on other areas a bit but not much. You will find large swarms of fleas around the inner ear. Harmless enough I have found. I am sure they would happily jump on to your dog or cat but you might find they also target the ears. I think fleas on dogs tend to stick around the tail mostly.

Years ago, I rented a house with an old girlfriend and we had only been living there for about a week or so and she was compaining about being bitten. I was not being touched at all but she was getting more and more nips. She swore blind it was fleas but I told her she was being daft. Anyhow, she put a pure white towel down on the floor next to the bed (we had a low futon thing in those days) and in the morning I could see the bloody things jumping around on it. Turns out the previous tenant had a cat despite pets not being allowed. Worse still, i had to admit to the girlfriend that she was right

 

[chelsea7513]

Cheers guys !
I did skin the ones I got that night as I didn't want to take any nastiest home.
I always keep the stuff I shoot in a plaster's bath that I use for deer recovery too which is washed each time it's used.
I didn't like the idea of chucking them in the car ( using the family car ATM! ) And getting flea's everywhere
Sounds like they might be a different type of flea to the common cat + dog flea's. I'm moving house so wanted to know about the freezer as this will be outside away from the house anyway and sounds like the best bet.
All our pets are flea treated, so hopefully shouldn't be a problem. It's more the feeling of them jumping around me at night in bed I don't like !

We had flea's when we moved into our flat now too, and was advised to use a shallow dish with just water and soup in it, they can't jump out because of the soap some how and omg in the morning there was loads in there! I didn't realise how many we had until then!

 

[RescueMe0007]

I find that they normally gather on the ears if so a just cut the ears of ferrets don’t seem bothered by them

Bit rough on the ferrets?

 

[charlieboy-shooter]

Would that kill the flea's to be then able to handle the rabbits say within 3 hours before they freeze?

Need to be mindful of the numbers placed in the freezer in one go as a big batch will take a few days for them all to freeze properly and kill the fleas.

I placed last batch of approx 15 in the freezer early hours of a Thursday morning, each individually bagged. Come Saturday night when removed from the freezer some fleas still alive and moving around in a few of the bags and active enough to get out and jump.
For you're scenario. I gut in field and then hang the rabbits on hooks inside plastic bags in a larder fridge and sort out next day.( I have some very large plastic bags. ) Remove one rabbit at a time and skin and prepare discarding the waste straight into another bag. Tend to notice the odd flea but easy to sort and most flea's left in bags. Just not very environmentally friendly with all the plastic.

 

[Ratel]

When we killed a lot of rabbits in times gone by (in the early 50's), the old fella used to hang them in the wash house which was cool. Just used to paunch them. We would be catching from Monday on and take them to market Saturday, by then the fleas had vanished. Never a problem with transference to dogs or ferrets.

 

[chelsea7513]

Cheers for the input guys.
I was worried of transfering them to my pet rabbits / cats mainly. Having them in the car and then bringing them home just gutted with skin on still.
From what everyone and you guys have said, it seems once the rabbits are dead and started to cool, the flea's start to jump off so hopefully I'm probably just thinking about too much and won't be a problem anyway.
I will make sure to get them froze down properly if and when I shoot a bigger bag thanks!

 

[aris]

-18C is the often quoted figure for killing parasites in wild animals intended for food. I've just been writing a risk assessment based on this, but cna't find hard evidence why -18C

USDA give guidance - perhaps it may help

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2021-02/Compliance-Guidelines-Trichinella.pdf