Tiny red worms on baby rabbit....any ideas?

[geoaware]

In the middle of our barn construction, a mother wild rabbit decided to make a nest and have her babies. We have been watching them grow over a few weeks....super cute. Today she let them out and they are free agents.

One is left in the nest...and when we checked on it it had these tine red worms..no longer than an eighth of an inch long in its fur...not a lot, but a couple. There were wiggling like worms (or more like leeches)..

Does anyone have an idea what these might be?

Gary

 

[eggcochin_freak5]

wow this is odd.... i've never heard of anything like it

 

[horsejody]

Perhaps they are maggots.

 

[ILoveJoe]

They sound like the large strongyles that my horses passed in their manure. Here is a photo I took of them:

Do they look like this? I don't know how long they live once they are out of the digestive system, but they were still moving when I snapped the pics and it was COLD outside. I recently learned that I needed to drag my pastures when the temps were 85 degrees or higher to kill most intestinal parasites shed in manure.

 

[RaychelsMomma]

I know this post is probably old but does anyone know what the tiny red worms are on this baby rabbit? We live in Tennessee and our black lab Duke ran down to the end of the driveway with the kids and along the way he found a rabbit nest. By the time we got there he'd already killed 2 of the babies but we saved one, thank God!! He's been with us for a couple of days now and we've noticed these red worms on him when he feed him or pick him up. They don't look like the ones in the manure photo though. They're way smaller than that. I just hope they don't kill him and we can find a way to get rid of them because they're really starting to creep me out. We've killed probably 20 so far. If anyone knows please help. Thank you and God Bless.

 

[Fawn Hills Sanctuary]

This is a real long shot but we found a baby rabbit today with the same red worms. Anyone ever have any luck figuring out what they are?