# In Case of Emergency ~ Rabbit



## elevan

Check here for quick reference to relevant issues:  (Quick Reference is under construction)



*Post your Emergency threads in this forum for full coverage to all members to assist you:  

Emergencies, Injuries & Cures Forum*



Please only post true emergencies in the Emergencies, Injuries & Cures forum.  All other issues should be placed in the appropriate diseases forum for that particular animal species.

*What is an emergency?*

_Wikipedia states:_

An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health or life.  Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation.  Some emergencies are not immediately threatening to life, but might have serious implications for the continued health and well-being of the animal (although a health emergency can subsequently escalate to be threatening to life).

In order to be defined as an emergency, the incident should be one of the following:
Immediately threatening to life or health.
Have already caused loss of life or health detriments.
Have a high probability of escalating to cause immediate danger to life or health.


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## Menkot

Only 2 of the baby bunnies made it so far. One is slowly blowing up like a balloon. Its belly is huge. It literally looks like a big balloon. He is pooping and eating and his belly is soft. Something is definitely wrong. We have made it almost 2 weeks. Any suggestions?


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## Pastor Dave

I will tag someone that might be able to help more than me.
@Bunnylady 
@DutchBunny03 
@promiseacres


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## promiseacres

Not sure... but  I would lean towards an injury or congenital and cull.


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## DutchBunny03

Was his condition also characteristic of the kits that died?


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## Menkot

No. The others were just too far gone when I realized she wasn't feeding them, I think. We lost the other one today. It was hopping happily when we left for church. We came home to a dead little bunny. I'm pretty sure we caused its death though.  I was feeding it yesterday  (it was bad about biting the dropper) and noticed a piece of the glass dropper was missing. It had blood coming out of its mouth when we got home. Lesson learned.... use plastic droppers.

  The big bellied bunny is better. I quit putting heavy whipping cream in its formula. It is slowly deflating. I had to move it out of the nest box today. It was hopping out. That is a huge improvement. Its belly was too big before. Hoping for the best but still not optimistic. I have a hand warmer under its hay and lint. Hopefully that will keep the poor lonely baby warm.  Poor little thing.


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## Pastor Dave

Once it is nibbling on the hay or orchard grass you feed the doe, it will probably regulate its own gut itself.


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## Edge of the Wilderness

Concerned about first time mom milk supply.

How much should newborn kits gain a day?  Should I foster out my kits?

I did find information stating gain should be ~.25oz/7g per day.  The kits in question are 3 days old and did not meet this in day/day weight check.

Here is my situation.  I have a first time mom.  This is actually her second kindle, but her first was unsuccessful due to a clerical error on my part when marking her date and not getting her a nest box in time.  She made a wonderful nest, kindled on the 29th, and had a litter of 10.  Two of them she partially ate before she left the nest box so I'm assuming they were stillborn.  On the 30th, I noticed a kit in her litter that seemed to be struggling so I gave it a supplemental feed and then fostered it to another mom, but it didn't make it through the night.  Yesterday I did weights on most of my new litters(5/6) and noticed her litter was significantly smaller than other litters born on the same day or the day or two before.  Because of this, I decided to reweigh her litter today.  During the reweigh, I found that the smallest kit from yesterday had died and the rest had very minimal gains or had lost a little. Of the 6 remaining kits, the weights were +6g, +1g, -2g, -2g, +4g, +2g  (and -2g on the deceased).  Compared to a litter of 5 born on the same day and weighed yesterday, the weight difference was +17g, +9g, +20g, +14g, +7g and the smallest kit from this litter is bigger than the largest kit from the litter in question.

Should I give her more time for her milk to come in or go ahead and put the whole litter with other does?  I want to give her a chance to be successful, but don't want to lose the whole litter either.

Tagging a couple people who have helped me with other questions in the past.  Hoping one of you might have more experience in knowing if I should give her more time or pull the plug.
@Bunnylady 
@promiseacres 
@AmberLops


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## AmberLops

Edge of the Wilderness said:


> Concerned about first time mom milk supply.
> 
> How much should newborn kits gain a day?  Should I foster out my kits?
> 
> I did find information stating gain should be ~.25oz/7g per day.  The kits in question are 3 days old and did not meet this in day/day weight check.
> 
> Here is my situation.  I have a first time mom.  This is actually her second kindle, but her first was unsuccessful due to a clerical error on my part when marking her date and not getting her a nest box in time.  She made a wonderful nest, kindled on the 29th, and had a litter of 10.  Two of them she partially ate before she left the nest box so I'm assuming they were stillborn.  On the 30th, I noticed a kit in her litter that seemed to be struggling so I gave it a supplemental feed and then fostered it to another mom, but it didn't make it through the night.  Yesterday I did weights on most of my new litters(5/6) and noticed her litter was significantly smaller than other litters born on the same day or the day or two before.  Because of this, I decided to reweigh her litter today.  During the reweigh, I found that the smallest kit from yesterday had died and the rest had very minimal gains or had lost a little. Of the 6 remaining kits, the weights were +6g, +1g, -2g, -2g, +4g, +2g  (and -2g on the deceased).  Compared to a litter of 5 born on the same day and weighed yesterday, the weight difference was +17g, +9g, +20g, +14g, +7g and the smallest kit from this litter is bigger than the largest kit from the litter in question.
> 
> Should I give her more time for her milk to come in or go ahead and put the whole litter with other does?  I want to give her a chance to be successful, but don't want to lose the whole litter either.
> 
> Tagging a couple people who have helped me with other questions in the past.  Hoping one of you might have more experience in knowing if I should give her more time or pull the plug.
> @Bunnylady
> @promiseacres
> @AmberLops


Sorry for the late reply...for some reason this didn't show up in my alerts even though you tagged me...
Foster them!!
She should have milk by now (day 3) and she obviously doesn't...so fostering is really your only chance of these kits surviving. They can only go 3 days without milk so they need it soon.
Good luck and i'm hoping for the best for you and the little ones


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## Edge of the Wilderness

Okay, thanks for the reply. I had ended up deciding to go ahead and at least foster out the two kits that had lost weight between the 31st and 1st.  Foster mom went in and nursed them right after I moved them and I was able to coax the doe that seems to be having supply issues into her nest to do a feeding for the 4 still there.  I think I may go ahead today and move the other 4 and try to rebreed her again.  I have another doe that was just bred on the 29th so she would have a potential foster partner if she had issues again.


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## AmberLops

Edge of the Wilderness said:


> Okay, thanks for the reply. I had ended up deciding to go ahead and at least foster out the two kits that had lost weight between the 31st and 1st.  Foster mom went in and nursed them right after I moved them and I was able to coax the doe that seems to be having supply issues into her nest to do a feeding for the 4 still there.  I think I may go ahead today and move the other 4 and try to rebreed her again.  I have another doe that was just bred on the 29th so she would have a potential foster partner if she had issues again.


Sounds like a great plan


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## Pastor Dave

New moms are really a gamble, especially in buns. Will she get bred, have a live litter, have a good sized litter, come into milk in time, actually nurse her litter, etc,etc.?
When those variables don't all come together, how many chances does she get to get it all right before culling?
I've had does that took a while to hit on all the cylinders. Some have had large litters that wouldn't take care of them, and some didn't come into milk until too late or not until the next time bred.

Two things I haven't done since having rabbits in the mid-80's is palpate to determine pregnancy. Trying to guess what feels like a grape in the window of time between 10 days and 14 days, and having my girls sit still and allow is more than I prefer. I'm going to find out in a couple more weeks anyway.
The other is weighing kits. If a doe doesn't get right to the litter until the evening after kindling, it's normal. If I don't see her seem to get in the box often, that's ok. If the kits don't have a sunken belly and wrinkly skin, they're probably getting enough nutrition. I check the kits once a day. The mortality rate before 2 weeks is high enough that I try not to be upset or surprised if a litter of 10 ends up a litter of 7 or 6. 

I always try to partner my does together on rotations to help foster one another's kits. If a doe has 8 and her partner has 6, I will split up the difference. This past winter I had a doe I really wanted to kindle have 1 kit on her second breeding. I borrowed 2 kits from her partner leaving her with 4, so the 1 kit would stay warm, and all 7 made it to processing. I could have taken the 1 kit and placed it with the other's 6, but I wanted the doe in question to have experience with a litter. Then we found out we were moving and no breeding for a while until we get adjusted.


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## AmberLops

I don't weigh kits either, I just go by what they look like....fat round bellies are always a good sign 
I do palpate my does at 10 days...the only ones I can't ever really tell is the Lionheads! But my Hollands are easy...Netherlands not so much. I like to partner does too like @Pastor Dave  mentioned...and to me the breed doesn't matter. An angora can raise a netherland dwarf for all I care...as long as the kit gets milk 
If a first-time doe has a litter that looks hungry after 2-3 days, I will put them all in with other does right away.


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## Edge of the Wilderness

I try to get a first weight around 2-3days and then usually once a week or so until just after weaning.  I don't usually track a litter so closely, but the lower weights of this particular litter made me take notice and I reweighed a second litter to have data from a point of reference.  I probably won't track growth weights on my litters at some point in the future, but for now I'm doing it to have more data to help with upcoming decisions about which animals I'd like to keep for breeding.  We live in a pretty remote area and had limited options for meat rabbits that we could find in a justifiable distance so last fall we ended up buying 2 unsexed meat mutt litters from 2 different families.  Now we're just working on sorting who are the best breeders.


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