# Chasing Rabbit



## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

Not sure where I should post this, but in case he ate it: :ahhhhh: Oh my, we just got home and as I drove in the driveway my headlights hit two rabbits. Without thinking (my bad) I let Tiki out as usual to go inside, which he usually does right away. Nope - he took off like lightening even though my headlights were out and it was quite dark. The nest think I hear was a little yelp, then saw Tiki racing across the street after a rabbit. I was able to see that because of a street light across the street. 

He arrived a few minutes later at the door, nothing on his mouth, but he smelled funny. He went in a d drank quite a bit of water. I just noticed a spot of blood on top of his snout behind his nose. It looks to my uneducated eye as a bit of a puncture.

Is this anything to worry about? Could he pick up anything bad from this. I guess I am pretty naive about all this.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

My cat regularly brings rabbits home, and shares them with the dogs, and I know of a pair of Papillons who routinely scale a six foot chain link fence to hunt down rabbits for breakfast! It sounds to me as if he had a good run, caught his snout on something, and lost the rabbit - it takes more than a few minutes to eat one! But unless the situation where you are is very different from the UK I really would not worry too much, even if he did eat it. I'd just watch for any possible inflammation if it really is a puncture wound, and for any signs of fleas or worms - rabbits are an intermediate host for tapeworms.


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## BorderKelpie (Dec 3, 2011)

My dogs have gotten rabbits and squirrels before. Of course there's always a chance of a problem with disease transmission, but I've never had any experiences with that. I would think it's fairly rare actually. It doesn't sound like he had time to kill and eat the rabbit, so you're probably ok. The biggest issue is a toss up between fleas and him running off trying to hunt them again. Keep a close eye on him for a day or two so he doesn't slip away from you. Practice recalls just in case and keep yummy treats on you to reward him right away for returning. Crittering can become a hard habit to break once established, and can put him at risk for getting lost or hurt. 

Other than that, you shouldn't have much to worry about. Oh! You may want to just wash his ouchie with regular soap and water - that's all I ever did with my hunting dogs when they tangled with rats.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

My Lab use to catch, kill and sometimes eat rabbits. Occasionally, she'd throw up after and I'd have a lovely mess on the lawn to clean up. A few times she got a baby rabbit and that made me so sad. But I never gave diseases a 2nd thought. I don't know why, but I didn't. And luckily she didn't get anything. My neighbor's dog did the same thing and we'd talk on the phone and say, "shall we play name that carcass?" Every morning we'd have coffee and talk on the phone for a bit after the kids went to school. And we had a good laugh over that because often, we couldn't tell what the dog ate, but there was something gross on the lawn. This was when I lived on acreage and the dogs could run all over the place.


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