I think my dog caught and ate a rabbit

[alp]

And it that OK?

She was off having a run about and taking a while to come back (have another thread about that I need to update) and when she did come back after 2mins or so she was covered in blood.

It was all over her mouth and jaws her nose, down her front legs. TBH I have never seen so much blood, it was pretty shocking.

It wasn't from her as I have checked her over and there are no scratches cuts etc.

So my question is - Is that OK? Do I need to check for anything?

She is a 10month old Springer Spaniel.

Thank you all!!

Re prey drive: there is a book called, I think, 'Stop' - someone (Minimuu?) recommended it to me and I did get it, had some useful tips in. But basically, distract before the chase begins if you can (squeaky toy, treat, whatever works - I just sort of get in Mouse's face and recall before he can think straight!) and make yourself twice as fun as chasing that rabbit.

The guy who wrote 'Stop' is a police dog trainer, and used to train dogs to the point where they'd go through a field of rabbits focussed on a ball and not on the rabbits - these are dogs who had strong prey drives to start with.

Do you think it was possible your dog bit it's tongue? Would leave a teeny mark and would be lots of blood, especially if mixed with saliva.

Well today's walk was uneventful in terms of blood and dead animals but my 2yo DS fell off a boardwalk into a stream and was wet head to toe!! What on earth will happen tomorrow!!!

Will have a look at the book and hopefully (money worries aside) we can sort out fine further training which hopefully will sort things out.

Definitely not a bitten tongue. This amount of blood would have been (IMHO) a dangerous amount for our small 10kg springer to have lost.

Will look forward to the part when she brings her victim back..........

Our old monsterr dog brought home a dead fox once. It might have been a young one. Bit hard to tell by that point!

I would second the bitten tongue query, because there is a massively scary amount of blood in the tongue and really not that much in a rabbit...

Best to get the vet to check it over, just to be sure, in case it is the tongue and it doesn't heal.

And after posting that I thought to go and ask dh who is a Countryman through and through and he agrees with me. There wouldn't be enough blood in a rabbit to cover the front of your dog. Springers do like to throw themselves into every available hedge and he might have caught his tongue and ripped it or something. Please get it checked out by a vet, I'm happy to be proved wrong.

Chicken. My dog killed a chicken and there was a lot of blood.
That lurcher someone's got which is interested in small dogs should be muzzled. Small dogs get attacked by greyhounds, lurchers etc and you get to pay the vet's bills if your dog causes the damage.

Well today she did actually chase a rabbit and was off for a good 10-15mins ignoring me bolting straight past me. Didn't catch the rabbit but this time I saw the poor little thing running through the undergrowth.

So cheesed off as two mins before she had come back to me so I gave her a treat and should have put her lead on then but thought "she's been so good this walk that I'll put it on a bit further down the path"

There is a gun dog training class on Sunday am so I think I'll be along to that!

I know nothing about rabbit killing thankfully, but completely off topic, is she really 10kg?? My Springer is 8months old and weighed just under 20kg when he was weighed 3 weeks ago. He's definately not fat either.

Yes she is really 10kg! she is a skinny little thing and fairly small for a springer - height wise her back is just below my knee.

We had a trouble getting weight on her - She was on Burns mini bites and then Burns Active Lamb but neither gave her the blanket covering on her ribs that she needed. We've moved her to raw feeding and she is doing much better and as giving her a bit extra doesn't result in loose stools she now has a nice blanket covering on her ribs!

Mines pretty much knee height too, but chunky I can easily feel all his ribs, and he has a definate waist but big boned I suppose. We feed him Skinners after seeing it recommended here, and he seems to be doing really well on it. I'm starting to think though that he will be a giant when fully grown

She burns off all the calories chasing the flipping rabbits!!!!!