Rabbit Kindled 5 Days Early

Hello!
So, I'm posting about a friend who had a ND doe that is proven, was a great mom, raised (I believe) 2 litters before successfully. She had bred said doe to a Mini Rex (doe wasn't taking to any other of her ND bucks, but rather liked this MR buck) and she took. The doe was due the 18th and nestbox was supposed to be put in the 16th (today). Friend arrived home from work, saw four babies in the cage with the mother, all in the same place, not scattered. There was no fur pulled, and the babies were cold, but she quickly warmed them up. They were warm, but dead.

The babies looked completely normal (from what I could tell by the photos) with just that sad dead look baby kits get when they die.
So my questions are, have you had this happen before? What would've caused her to kindle FIVE days early? Why didn't they live?

Possible causes of premature birth- stressful environment(eg. predator around, noisy environment, other stressors), rabbit syphilis(VD), uterine abnormalities(uterine cancer), vit. A deficiency/toxicity, vit. E deficiency, hyperthermia, medications, toxins, or just a random occurrence.

The babies could have died because the doe was affected by one of the above illnesses and so they were also affected, or if the temps there are sufficiently cold it could be the babies became hypothermic beyond the point of recovery by warming.

My doe has done this before as well. She has had two successful litters. She bred through the wire with my Lionhead buck and I didn't know she was pregnant. She delivered 4 days early and didn't pull any fur. The kits all froze. I bred her a month later and she had a successful litter after.

JBun said:

Possible causes of premature birth- stressful environment(eg. predator around, noisy environment, other stressors), rabbit syphilis(VD), uterine abnormalities(uterine cancer), vit. A deficiency/toxicity, vit. E deficiency, hyperthermia, medications, toxins, or just a random occurrence.

The babies could have died because the doe was affected by one of the above illnesses and so they were also affected, or if the temps there are sufficiently cold it could be the babies became hypothermic beyond the point of recovery by warming.

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Khloe said:

My doe has done this before as well. She has had two successful litters. She bred through the wire with my Lionhead buck and I didn't know she was pregnant. She delivered 4 days early and didn't pull any fur. The kits all froze. I bred her a month later and she had a successful litter after.

Click to expand...

Thank you both! This is good to know. I believe it was just a random occurrence, the doe lives inside, and she only owns rabbits (which are all separated) so it was neither stress, nor cold.