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dmmcnair

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Location
Lexington, Texas, USA
I was expecting four litters last week, and onlygot one.:( It turns out that Thea and Lily weren't evenpregnant, but Alli was, but she is having problems. She hasexpelled two dead kits over the last 3 days. I bred her toget the necessary hormones going to get them out. Either thator have them mummify inside her or do something worse. It'sbreaking my heart. I'm not sure why she stopped her kindlingprocess...she was starting to kindle, built her nest and pulled fur,and then just stopped. She was way overdue (6 days).

Thea and Lily are now on a diet (I found that they were overweight, notgood for breeding rabbits)sadly in my ignorance I have beenslightly overfeeding them (8 oz a day instead of 5 oz) and it reallyhad an impact on their weight (which is probably why the breedingdidn't take).

So my son only has 5 rabbits to choose from for his 4Hproject. At least those kits are doing well. We didlose one, it was the runt, and the others just kept pushing it out ofthe way so it wasn't getting anything. :(

Pam and other breeders - I'm not sure about what to do withAlli. She is also on a diet, but I'm worried about breedingher again. But should I to make sure this will not be arepeat occurrance? She is such a sweet rabbit. I doneed to know if we can keep her in our breeding program ornot. What do you all do if you have overweight does andbucks? All of my rabbits have to go on a diet.

Thanks all,

Dawn
 
For the future...

I have a small enough herd that I can do this easily. Everytime I havea doe that is due on Day 30 I give her a weaksolution of warmRasberry Tea. They love the stuff! I've found that after driving theRasberry Tea that my does are more relaxed. However, when I find aproblem with the doe giving birth I give them a strong solution ofRasberry Tea. I had a doe with a stuck kit that I couldn'teven begin to help get out. I gave her a strong solution and she'relaxed her downstairs muscles' and the kit came out..dead of course.I had a breeder friend give me this little word of advice and I loveit! The does are much happier and they know when they get the Tea LOL!Nestbox followed by Rasberry Tea a few days later. :)

Just remember, every breeder does things differently that work forthem. This is just one thing that works well for me and I'll never goback to the 'pre Rasberry Tea' days again. :p

~*~Amanda~*~
 
I hope everything works out ok - my wrigglieswere a total surprise as you know, and instantly I loved them to tinybits. I can't imagine how bad you must feel. Keeping my fingers crossedfor you.

Lindsey x :(
 
Re-breeding her at this point doesn't have muchof an effect as far as stimulating the hormones enough to expel thekits. It is still possible she may pass them, but when kitsare retained it is best to give a combination hormone/calcium injectionwithin 24 hours of the onset of labor.

We have a greater incidence of retained kits and birthing difficultiesduring this time of year. We have found that in nearly everycase, the re-bred does did not have any problem with their next litters.

We had a terrible time last year with retained kits :(One doehad to be put down, another had a c-section and yet another had to goto the vet for hormone/calcium injections. You'll find itmost cost effective to get the doe in to the vet ASAP, as delay mayresult in the necessity of an expensive 200+ operation.

Pam
 
Amanda-thank you for the advice of the raspberry tea...I will definitely try it the next time there could be a problem.

Pam- thank you for the advice...I will try to get her to a vet as soonas I can. I don't suppose you can give those shotsyourself?

It seems I am learning the hard way, but at least I amlearning. The other kits are doing so well and growingnicely. I have to start weighing them. Validationis in February. I'm happy that Chloe had a smaller litterthan Jenna (11) I think that they will grow faster and be more uniformthan Jenna's kits are.

By the way, I have 9, 8 week old rabbits for sale.

Thanks again ya'll, it's soothes my mind to know I can ask questionsand get answers when needed on this forum. Ya'll are greatand helping me and my rabbits.

Dawn
 
dmmcnair wrote:
Pam- thank you for the advice...I will try to get her to a vet as soonas I can. I don't suppose you can give those shotsyourself?


Dawn


You can give the oxytocin shot yourself, but would have to get it from the vet.

Pam
 
Just wondering about the raspberry tea thing...how much should you give the bunny? And is strawberry andraspberry or echinea(sp?) and raspberry okay to give? I wasjust wondering as Max is on her 29th day and was thinking if they'renot here in the next 5 days, we'll give her some.

Ang xx
 

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