Stillborn Kits

[Rex79]

I watched one of my Rex does give birth this evening. It was amazing to see but sadly all four kits were stillborn.

This was her first kindle. I suspected something might be wrong as she hadn't been eating properly for at least seven days. She is now very very skinny. She didn't build her nest in her box but in the opposite coner of the cage.

I've left her with fresh water, some pellets and a few greens before leaving her for the night.

Any tips to help my doe recover or any thoughts on why this happend? And when should I rebreed?

 

[Niele da Kine]

Why wasn't she eating properly? Change in feed? Lack of water?

Next time put the nest box in the corner where she built the nest.

She shouldn't be rebred until she's in condition so get her eating properly. Maybe mix some higher nutrition into her pellets? Rolled grains (plain oatmeal is good) maybe some calf manna (just a bit, a teaspoon full per day) maybe some BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds) or other things to get her weight up. Feed her more than however much she was getting.

 

[Bunnylady]

Sorry to hear about your lost litter.

I do not like the sound of "very, very skinny." Makes me wonder if your doe is even going to survive this. I'm thinking it likely that she had a problem which caused her lack of appetite, and the death of the litter is secondary to it. Was this her due date? I have had does abort day 20+ pregnancies when under severe stress.

I agree with everything that @Niele da Kine said about trying to get this doe back up to weight, but I think figuring out why she quit eating in the first place is of primary importance. Until you can resolve that issue, I wouldn't even consider re-breeding, or this may happen again. If this was an Angora, the obvious first thought would be wool block, but just because this is a Rex doesn't mean she can't have a tummy full of fur, or something else. Could she possibly have been getting hold of something mildly toxic?

 

[Rex79]

Thanks,

I wonder if she will survive this too. She seems ok today though and I've noticed she is eating again.

I hadn't change her food but about two weeks ago I noticed she had taken to nibbling on the plastic flooring that is in her cage. I removed it but I think the damage had been done. I thought she was just nibbling it but maybe she had eaten some.

I'll boost her up with some BOSS and oats along with her normal pellets and hay - hopefully she is recover.

 

[Rex79]

A quick update...

I should have said that my doe was 2 days early. Her due day was today and this morning I found a half eaten kit in her cage which she must have given birth to during the night.

Do you think that 5 kits for a very small 7 month old Rex was just too much? I wonder if she was just too immature?

She is happily eating her extra hay and BOSS this afternoon and is enjoying her usual head rub!

 

[Bunnylady]

5 is a large litter for a small Netherland Dwarf, but generally speaking, it isn't that large a litter.

Rabbits can suffer a condition called Pregnancy Toxemia in which the doe's body is metabolizing its fat reserves to try to meet the energy requirements of a growing in-utero or recently delivered litter, and her liver can't keep up with the resulting toxins (that's waaay over-simplified, but you get the idea). Anyway, it's a serious condition, and is most often diagnosed after the doe dies of it. It is most often seen in overweight does, especially first-time mothers. Anorexia (loss of appetite) can be either a cause or a symptom. If this is what was going on, your doe may be one of the lucky few that survived it.

 

[Niele da Kine]

Thanks for the explanation, Bunnylady, I'm way good with 'waaay over-simplified'! Wouldn't an overweight doe be able to metabolize fat reserves easier than a skinny doe? Although, overweight people frequently have liver troubles, so perhaps it's the same in rabbits? Toxins are stored in fat, I think, so if she's metabolizing fats for the growing litter, she'd be getting a heavy dose of toxins coming out of the fats.

Hmm, a lot to think about and I don't really have much info to go on but fortunately we now have the internet and we can now Find Things Out. Remember only having an encyclopedia or a local library for our entire information source? We also have all you lovely people on the other side of the screen who are amazingly helpful, too!

So she had four stillborn several days ago and then had another one sometime last night which would be two days later? Could the half eaten one been from the previous event? That's a really long time for a doe to be in labor if they were all the same litter. When she was bred, how long was she with the buck? Could it have been two different litters?

 

[Rex79]

She was bred on 29/9/20 and gave birth on 27/10/20 to 4 stillborn kits. Then gave birth early hours of the 29/10 to one more kit - I guess this was stillborn and thats why she ate most of it.

On the 28/10/20 I did observe her nest building again and her tummy contracting as if she was going to give birth.

She wasn't with the buck for that long, about 10mins or so and only had one fall off. She wasn't bred again so it can't be from two different litters but yes, I thought she was in labor for a long time, is that not normal?

She definitely seems more settled this evening and I'm encouraged that she is eating almost normally again.

 

[Ridgetop]

She may have had a bad presentation of a kit that prevented her from giving birth properly. I found one of my Netherland Dwarfs with a stuck kit once. The head was sticking out and she was hopping round the cag very agitated. I pulled it out, put her in the nest box, and she produced the rest of the litter.

Litter was not too large for a Rex. Not eating was odd. Is her stool proper? Does she have diahhrea? Why is there plastic on the bottom of her cage? If it is to give her a place off the wire to sit, use plain dryall cut into 12" x 8" pieces. It is gypsum which is a natural earthen compound (chalk) and harmless to rabbits.

 

[Niele da Kine]

As for how long for a doe to have a litter, they usually get it done within a couple hours at the most. Usually they'll have a kit and then another one in a few minutes so it doesn't take all that long for them to have the whole litter. If it takes more than six hours, I'd look for a reason as to why.