Possible Kindling Emergency

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kukupecpec

kukupecpec

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Dec 6, 2012
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Location
Tucson AZ
I came home and my mother in law was freaking out that my momma bunny, Red, is bleeding. I assumed it was just normal bleeding from kindling, today is day 31. I haven't actually witnessed her give birth before, she usually does it super early in the morning/super late at night. I check at about 10 or 11pm and nothing, then by 6 or 7am she has a litter all snuggled up in her fur mound in the box. There is usually some blood, a little around the nest and a handful of drops here and there around her hutch. Sometimes there's some on her fur around her bottom.
Today, she is obviously JUST starting kindling at around 7:30 pm. She was just bleeding when my mother in law saw her, but by the time I got outside she had a baby sitting behind her. It's earlier in the evening, and she's just sitting in the middle of the hutch rather than in the nest box having her babies right out on the wire. I feel like there is a lot of blood, but I know know if this is normal and I just only see the cleaned up after math?

I moved her from the hutch to a smaller cage to bring inside and keep an eye on her. She's seems tired, she didn't fight when I picked her up, but she did hop away just fine when she saw my hand coming at her. She looks like she might be dozing off a little, but she is still alert, getting up, sniffing things, chewing, drinking. She will get up suddenly, move around a bit, leave a puddle of blood the size of a quarter or so, then lick it (on the blanket) a whole bunch.
Are these things normal? Are there any warning signs I should look for? How long should it take between babies? It's been nearly half an hour since the first one was born.



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She just had one baby? Is it alive and healthy? That much blood does not look normal, I've bred many does and never experienced that.
 
It's alive, moving around, but it looks a little small. Then again she usually has small litters so if this is a larger litter the kits would be tinier. However she has only had the one, and it is pretty well covered in blood, although I was able to rub some off after it dried. I've never seen her kits that bloody before.
I'm trying to find information online, but I'm just not getting anywhere, it's all about taking care of kits rather than does that might be in danger. I don't know what to do or what to look for.
She is about 3 years old or so we think, but I didn't think she was too old to be giving birth.

She is kind of tilting her head up while she is laying day. Usually when she rests her head is tilted to the side or laid on the ground, so this looks kind of funny. Like she is pushing her chest up and out.
 
When my does give birth there is usually only a very small amount of blood after they give birth, to me that much blood doesn't seem normal but maybe someone with more experience could help.

"A small amount of blood is normal, as there is blood flowing through the placentas (afterbirths) and as the placenta is torned the blood in the placenta will be released. However, if there is a lot of blood, if the blood flow is pulsing or if there is a steady flow, you should take your rabbit to the vet immediately as there could be a uterine tear that could be life-threatening."
 
Not that I can see. She definitely didn't prepare the nest at all. But I don't know if she pulls before or after. Usually the nest box is completely undisturbed when I go to bed, and then there is a big pile of fluff covering the babies when I wake up the next morning.

Is quick breathing normal? She looks maybe a little dazed? But if I move or anything she gets quite alert.
 
There are only 3 emergency animal clinics here and none of them have any experience with rabbits or I would consult them and probably take her in. As it stands, I am all she has for now.
 
When you moved her to the cage, could you see any sign of a kit stuck in the birth canal? When you went to pick her up, how did she act? Is she alert? Does she seem to be in pain? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get a better idea of how she's acting.
 
I held her on my lap for a few minutes and tried to gently feel for a kit. I can't really tell if there is anything in the canal or even elsewhere. I moved her opening a bit and there is definitely nothing to SEE there.
She was much calmer than usual when I picked her up, which was my first real concern. But she hopped away when I reach for her, and she flips right over and hops away if I let her go, but she isn't fighting.
She looks quite tired now. She even looks like she might be dozing off a little. But If I move or speak to her she perks up. If I reach in to the cage she wakes right up and is completely alert.
 
I think she MIGHT be starting to grind her teeth a little. But I also might be paranoid. She will get up every once in a while and chew on her next box or get a drink, or just get up and move around a little and reposition herself.
 
She's also getting up and grooming her face and belly and feet a bit, but definitely not anywhere her vaginal opening.
 
How many kits does she normally have? She could be in labour, just having trouble passing the kits. Only one kit is kind of unusual, most litters are larger then that.

I read that If a doe only conceives one or two kits, she will often go well over the normal 31 days' gestation. The kits wind up huge, and she has a lot of trouble giving birth to them.

Have you felt her stomach?? If you feel her stomach, can you feel kits in there? Just remember rabbits are prey animals. If they are disrupted too much while giving birth you could cause her to delay birthing, which could cause her problems. It may be best to not handle/touch her for now :)
 
Her norm is 5 to 7. She's never had less than 4, and never more than 9.
I did try to feel her stomach when I looked at her originally. It looks large and full, but I just can't feel anything. I've never been very good at palpating. She get's really tense when you touch her stomach so it's mostly just flat and hard.

She is definitely making noises with her mouth now. Just once in a while, but there is a quiet grunt or a teeth clicking sound.

I'm not actually messing with her, just watching, but she is in a totally new place - new cage, in the house, not near her mate. She seems very calm though, definitely not nervous - I've seen her nervous, she holds her breath and even her blind eye gets wide and frightened.

And now she's licking her vent. Do they do this to help get the baby out? She's licking and chewing and pulling
 
Nothing has come of it, and she's stopped for now. I just don't know when to try to help. She's not bleeding any more, but she's also no having any more babies!
 
How is she this morning? I can't really help a whole lot as we rarely see our does giving birth. It can take up to 24 hrs for them to kindle though. Seems unusual though that she didn't clean the kit that she had.
 
my french lop bled a lot during her last litter. and i mean A LOT. but she had 7 big and fat kits in her nest box. but it did take her 2 days to have them. she had 3 kits in the morning and 4 more kits the next morning.
 
She had another kit around 3am, alive, quite large, almost twice the size of the first kit. Usually her kits are all very similar in size, the only time she had a true runt like this was with a litter of 9, she had 2 that were much smaller than the rest. One was dead when I first saw the kits and the other died later that day.

She LOOKS fine, up and moving and acting completely normally. She did pull both kits out of the nest around 5am, I thought she had had two more, but when I woke up better and checked the nest box it was still just the original two. She hasn't pulled any fur though, which is strange for her. She usually has quite a mountain of fuzz on her babies.
It's good to know it might take some time though. Her belly looks quite large to me. When she lays on her side, she usually looks very skinny, but since last night she definitely has a big belly full of something. Hopefully it's more kits still waiting to work their way out.
 
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