palpating

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holland

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Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on thebest way to do this. I've been practicing, and I hope whatI'm feeling is babies, and not something else.
 
Here is one description of palpating:

"Hold the ears and the fold of skin over the shoulders in the righthand; place the left hand between the hind legs, slightly in front ofthe pelvis; place the thumb on the right side and the fingers on theleft side of the abdomen; exert light pressure and move the fingers andthumb gently backward and forward. If the doe is pregnant, you shouldbe able to distinguish the embryos as marble-shaped forms as they slipbetween the thumb and fingers. Handle the doe gently, and use onlylight pressure on the abdominal cavity. Accurate determination ofpregnancy by palpation takes practice. If you are inexperienced,repalpate does diagnosed as nonpregnant a week later. If a mistake hasbeen made in the first palpation, the doe can be put on a full rationand provided with a nest box at the proper kindling time. Withpractice, you may develop enough skill to diagnose pregnancy as earlyas the 10th or 11th day, but that will take a lot of practice."

(As a suggestion...if you have two does, one who definitely isn't pregnant, you could try palpating the two and compare.)

I used to try palpating when I raised Polish years ago, but neverdeveloped the confidence to do it accurately. However, I also didn'tbreed my rabbits very often, so didn't get to practice it too often...


 
Thanks Carolyn,

I did read the cheat sheet. I'm pretty sure that I'm feeling the rightthing, I just thought I might get some helpful information from someonewho is more experienced. But as far as I can tell, we will behaving three does deliver in about a week and a half.Hopefully by them I'll have a digital camera and be able to post somepics.
 
Thanks Bassetluv. I am still new tothis even though we've had rabbits for over a year now, I'm stilllearning as I go. I've been practicing, but sometimes it'sjust really hard to tell.



I have definitely felt something in there, it feels like a large grape,I just wanted to make sure that I was feeling the right thing.
 
From Pamnock in other threads:

* * * * * *


It takes some experience to be able to accurately palpate a doe at12-14 days into her pregnancy. You can often feel the babiesof a doe who is further along near the end of her gestation.The heads feel like small, hard, round balls. Avetfamiliar with rabbits would be able to palpate the feti,sothere's no reason to go to the expense of an ultrasound.

Your doe may (or may not) exhibit common signs of pregnancy such as pulling fur, gathering hay, patting or digging at the cage.

Pam

* * * * * * *

It helps to practice not only on rabbits that you think are pregnant,but also on rabbits that you know are not (yes, you can even practiceon boys LOL). The way, you get the feel of what thenon-pregnant state can feel like, so you can more easily determine whatfeels "different" when a doe is pregnant. 14 days is theeasiest time to determine pregnancy as the fetus have a classic "grape"shape and feel that is easy to distinguish.

Pam



 
I have one doe that I'm watching veryclose. We picked her up a couple of weeks ago, and the guy wegot her from said she had been in a cage beside a buck. I've triedpalpating her but she just feels really bloated and tight.
 

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