Rabbit twitching

[trappa 518]

Im not sure whether this is the right place to post this but i had something happen that ive never seen before.

I was out shooting this afternoon with my son and the 22lr. We had bagged quite a few, but as this was a serious job to knock down numbers and we were killing pretty indescriminatly, young were easy game.

Now, I gut the rabbit, then peel the skin off over its head, then stand on the skin, hold the back legs and pull tight, then cut through its neck, leaving me with a skinned rabbit ready for home. This particular rabbit i gutted it , peeled the skin off but when i went to stand on its skin and pull it tight to cut its head off the head just came off - i had obviously shot it through its neck BUT it started twitching, not a bit-A LOT. its back legs were going, the saddle was twitching and the muscle around its bum/top of leg was twitching and it didnt stop for 10 minutes!!! It was just weird seeing this gutted and skinned rabbit with its legs going! If i could have videod it i would have it was feckin mad.

Has anyone else seen this? ive gutted thousands and have never had a rabbit twitch on me when gutted and skinned- This was for 10 minutes too!! and a good hour (at least) after i shot it!!

[Guest buster321c]

Sometimes it weird aint it Trappa , i had one the other week that ide shot , when i picked it up it started back legs going like mad !! I though it might have been still alive , but it was just twitching .

[trappa 518]

This wasnt just after id shot it though, it was an hour after and only once i gutted it and "pulled" its head off.

Me and the boy were just stood there with our mouths agape as this skinned rabbit was kicking its legs and twitching its body!

Edited May 16, 2009 by trappa

[Guest buster321c]

Na mate never seen owt like that , would have put the shits up me LOL

[SportingShooter 0]

Some of the things you see when out are strange

 

I imagine it was pent up Adrenaline though

[shepp 2,285]

I had one with the body twitching and hour after shooting when i skinned it.

Not kicking though just twitches down its sides.

[Guest buster321c]

Now you say that SS, it makes me think about rigor mortis . I dont know this , but i recon that adrenaline is responsiable for rigor mortis because all the rabbits that ive shot that are just sitting , eating , and generally in a world of their own dont go `stiff ` for a while . But on the other hand , if there running about ( i shot a buck that was being chased off by another buck ) or they see you and are on the verge of running , they tend to go stiff straight away . This must be adrenaline having an effect on them and in death causes them to `stiffen ` almost straight away . Anyone else have any ideas ? Sorry Trappa , dont mean to hijack the thread .

[Sterry 0]

Yh it is adrenaline and other chemicals that induce rigor mortice, such as lactic acid (stuff that gives you cramp) and other stuff, when something dies everything relaxes and releases everythign hormones and all that lark!

 

As for the rabbit trappa is talking bout , just strange i think, mabe temperature or something had something to do with it.

[Mr_Logic 5]

Trappa, you shot the Energiser bunny! Keeps going long after other rabbits have expired

[jonnyboi 0]

Trappa, you shot the Energiser bunny! Keeps going long after other rabbits have expired

 

lol

[Piscator 0]

Now you say that SS, it makes me think about rigor mortis . I dont know this , but i recon that adrenaline is responsiable for rigor mortis because all the rabbits that ive shot that are just sitting , eating , and generally in a world of their own dont go `stiff ` for a while . But on the other hand , if there running about ( i shot a buck that was being chased off by another buck ) or they see you and are on the verge of running , they tend to go stiff straight away . This must be adrenaline having an effect on them and in death causes them to `stiffen ` almost straight away . Anyone else have any ideas ? Sorry Trappa , dont mean to hijack the thread .

 

Rigor sets in when the chemicals which allow muscle fibres to slide over eachother (contract) are used up. The body uses an "active" system to pump these chemicals around the muscle fibres and keep them in balance.

Once the chemicals that fuel this process are used up the active pumps stop working and the muscle fibres become locked together i.e. stiff = rigor mortis.

How quickly this happens dpends on the animals energy reserves when it is killed.

 

If you think it's wierd watching a rabbit kick and twitch you should see an 800kg cow carcass doing it at slaughter - as you might guess I worked in the meat industry for a while.

[quicksilver 0]

last weekend we went out for a few rabbits with the 17HMR, out of 8 rabbits 6 were head shots and i was suprised to see a few of them kick and flip as though they had been hit with a bad shot. The damage to the head was severe but a couple of the rabbits didnt relaise they should have been dead

 

slightly different subject,

[Guest buster321c]

Now you say that SS, it makes me think about rigor mortis . I dont know this , but i recon that adrenaline is responsiable for rigor mortis because all the rabbits that ive shot that are just sitting , eating , and generally in a world of their own dont go `stiff ` for a while . But on the other hand , if there running about ( i shot a buck that was being chased off by another buck ) or they see you and are on the verge of running , they tend to go stiff straight away . This must be adrenaline having an effect on them and in death causes them to `stiffen ` almost straight away . Anyone else have any ideas ? Sorry Trappa , dont mean to hijack the thread .

 

Rigor sets in when the chemicals which allow muscle fibres to slide over eachother (contract) are used up. The body uses an "active" system to pump these chemicals around the muscle fibres and keep them in balance.

Once the chemicals that fuel this process are used up the active pumps stop working and the muscle fibres become locked together i.e. stiff = rigor mortis.

How quickly this happens dpends on the animals energy reserves when it is killed.

 

If you think it's wierd watching a rabbit kick and twitch you should see an 800kg cow carcass doing it at slaughter - as you might guess I worked in the meat industry for a while.

 

 

So why do `sitters` take longer to `stiffen?

[RicW 67]

Now you say that SS, it makes me think about rigor mortis . I dont know this , but i recon that adrenaline is responsiable for rigor mortis because all the rabbits that ive shot that are just sitting , eating , and generally in a world of their own dont go `stiff ` for a while . But on the other hand , if there running about ( i shot a buck that was being chased off by another buck ) or they see you and are on the verge of running , they tend to go stiff straight away . This must be adrenaline having an effect on them and in death causes them to `stiffen ` almost straight away . Anyone else have any ideas ? Sorry Trappa , dont mean to hijack the thread .

 

Rigor sets in when the chemicals which allow muscle fibres to slide over eachother (contract) are used up. The body uses an "active" system to pump these chemicals around the muscle fibres and keep them in balance.

Once the chemicals that fuel this process are used up the active pumps stop working and the muscle fibres become locked together i.e. stiff = rigor mortis.

How quickly this happens dpends on the animals energy reserves when it is killed.

 

If you think it's wierd watching a rabbit kick and twitch you should see an 800kg cow carcass doing it at slaughter - as you might guess I worked in the meat industry for a while.

 

 

So why do `sitters` take longer to `stiffen?

 

At a guess, and it's only a guess, the level of oxygen in the blood is higher than in one shot on the run. That ties in with the point about energy reserves; more oxy means more energy can be released. The twitcher's central nervous system was probably destroyed by the neck shot and the physical effecr of skinning was to release energy in one go that would have been released over time. Like I say though just guessing.

Ric

[Piscator 0]

Now you say that SS, it makes me think about rigor mortis . I dont know this , but i recon that adrenaline is responsiable for rigor mortis because all the rabbits that ive shot that are just sitting , eating , and generally in a world of their own dont go `stiff ` for a while . But on the other hand , if there running about ( i shot a buck that was being chased off by another buck ) or they see you and are on the verge of running , they tend to go stiff straight away . This must be adrenaline having an effect on them and in death causes them to `stiffen ` almost straight away . Anyone else have any ideas ? Sorry Trappa , dont mean to hijack the thread .

 

Rigor sets in when the chemicals which allow muscle fibres to slide over eachother (contract) are used up. The body uses an "active" system to pump these chemicals around the muscle fibres and keep them in balance.

Once the chemicals that fuel this process are used up the active pumps stop working and the muscle fibres become locked together i.e. stiff = rigor mortis.

How quickly this happens dpends on the animals energy reserves when it is killed.

 

If you think it's wierd watching a rabbit kick and twitch you should see an 800kg cow carcass doing it at slaughter - as you might guess I worked in the meat industry for a while.

 

 

So why do `sitters` take longer to `stiffen?

 

An animal that was sitting relaxing before it was hit has a higher reserve of energy within its muscles than one that was bombing around shortly before death - this energy store means it takes longer for the active systems in the muscle fibres to run out of energy and lock up causing rigor.

 

In industrial meat production the carcass is normally subjected to a process called HVES just after slaughter and dressing which passes an electrical current through the the muscle tissue effectively causing it to convulse rapidly - this uses up the energy stores in the muscles very quickly and causes rigor to set in much faster.

The reason for doing this is that the by-products of the rapid muscle movements cause the pH of the tissue to drop quickly into the zone where bacteria are less likely to grow, as well as speeding up the tenderisation process reducing the time the meat needs to "hang"

Hope this helps explain it - apologies if it was like being back at school