Orphan kits, wild ones

[gentle giants]

My friends dog dug up a rabbit nest in her yard, and knowing I raise rabbits she brought the two surviving kits to me last night. Unfortunatly, I don't have any nursing does right now, although I do have one due in the next couple of days if I can keep them going that long on my own.
Anyway, I want to make sure I am taking care of them right. I am using kitten milk replacer, and only feeding them every 12-24 hours, like a doe would do. I am using a one cc syringe, since they didn't seem thrilled about the bottle I tried. I got one cc down each of them this afternoon, and it took me an hour to do it. I am just dripping one drop at a time into their mouths, letting them swallow that, then another drop. I know about wiping their little bottoms, too, although I haven't gotten them to pee for me yet.
Is their anything else I ought to be doing for them until Juliet is due to have her litter? Will I be able to foster them on her? The orphans are probably about two to two and a half weeks, they are just getting their eyes open, but Juliet is a Flemish, so her kits will be big. I do worry about the orphans having some kind of disease, though. Any advice will help, thanks in advance!

 

[gentle giants]

Anyone?

 

[maherwoman]

Maybe you should try reposting this in the Infirmary section as well? And when you repost it, let people know you're sorry for posting twice, you just wanted to get help ASAP.

I would help you if I could, but I've never had such young buns to take care of.

Hopefully someone will be along shortly to help! :?

 

[gentle giants]

Thank you, but it's too late. I lost both of them very abruptly yesterday and the day before. They seemed fine for a couple of days, eating well and everything, then the day before yesterday when I went in to check on them, one of them was barely alive. The other one went into seizures with in the next 24 hours, and never recovered.

 

[maherwoman]

Aww...I'm so sorry...

Binky free, little babies! :rainbow::apollo::apollo::rainbow:

How are you doing with all this? Are you okay?

 

[gentle giants]

Yeah.. I was pretty bummed about it when it happened, cause it really seemed like they were going to be ok. It just didn't make any sense, they were energetic and doing the little bobble legged wobble all over the big bird cage I had them in, were eager to eat when I would feed them, and then, boom. Gone. I don't know, I guess wild creatures are just extra fragile.

 

[Pipp]

I'm so sorry, GG, I missed this post (not that I could have been much help). I probably would have moved it to the infirmary as well.

Idon't know why it didn't get a response here, other than it seemed you were doing everything right, there wasn't much to add. And wild bunnies are a different ballgame. (And breeders are traditionally pretty busy in the summer with shows and their breeding programs).

Or it could have been that their survivalodds are so small, nobody wanted to get to attached to the story.

It really is almost impossible to keep them alive. They always look so good and raise our hopes, but it ultimately ends in heartbreak in spite of all the best care.

Again, so sorry. :sad:



sas

 

[gentle giants]

Thanks.

 

[pamnock]

I'm sorry to hear that you lost them

They are actually very tough little buggers, but need someone experienced in feeding them because they easily aspirate liquid and can die of pneumonia. It is also illegal to have them in your possession, so when young kits are found with their eyes still closed, they need to be turned over to a wildlife rehabber.

A work of caution - never foster wild kits to your domestic does. Disease can be spread to both the doe and litter.

Pam

 

[gentle giants]

There aren't any rehabbers near me that I could have taken them to, though, that was my problem. I was trying to be really careful to keep them from aspirating the milk, I would just dribble one little drop of milk in thier mouths at a time, and wait until they swallowed it before I gave them more. The stupid thing is, the night before I lost the second one, it took it's biggest feeding, 5ccs of milk, and it was so eager it was sucking it out of the syringe before I could even dribble it into it's mouth.