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Tips and Tricks to Helping a Doe with a Stuck Kit

3/15/2015

8 Comments

 
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS GRAPHIC AND MAY BE UPSETTING TO SOME READERS. PLEASE CONTINUE WITH CAUTION.

This week, I have had to deal with the hardest thing about raising rabbits: stuck kits and dead babies.

Holly's Saige was due on Saturday, March 7. Sunday night, March 8, she delivered one huge, dead baby. I thought she was done.

Three days later, that Tuesday, I noticed that she had hardly eaten, and when I was giving her lots of love and cuddles, I felt a lump in her stomach. I gently massaged it downward.

Hours later, she began contracting and visibly pushing. I flipped her over to see what was happening, and I saw a foot protruding from her vulva. It went back in because her contractions stopped.

I got a tub of lukewarm water and a towel and floated Saige on her back in the water. Using my cupped hand, I poured a bit of water over her belly and tail. I held her in the water for about 5 minutes and slightly towel dried her.

During the day and throughout the next, I gave her a ton of kale, about a cup and a half (over two days). Kale is very high in calcium, and calcium helps build strong contractions.

On Wednesday, there was still no baby. I could tell she was making progress, as the lump was moving downward and her vulva was swollen. I let her get exercise on the grass for over an hour. She actually seemed to really enjoy it. She ate a bunch of grass and ran and binkied.

That night, she finally delivered the kit. It was dead, and absolutely huge!

Even after that, she had another stuck baby. It was a total of a week until she was finally completely done delivering.

I hope my story can help others and give you ideas of how to help your doe during a difficult labor. What I did really seemed to help her and progress the labor.

Saige was such a trooper through the whole thing. Needless to say, she's getting lots of love and treats now, and a well-deserved break for a few weeks.


8 Comments
Jill Rives
3/15/2016 10:55:45 pm

I am so glad I just came across this. The same thing happened to us in January. This was our first time to breed our rabbits, so of course my kids were devastated. On day 33 our doe started pulling hair and then the next day (day 34) she delivered a fetal giant (dead of course) on a Thursday afternoon. It was traumatic....my kids had a brief funeral for her. We left the next day to go out of town for the weekend. My mom texted me on Sunday afternoon to tell me that the doe had another large still born baby...I was shocked as I had read NOTHING about this on any website. We were told by a breeder that it was best to let her be for a couple of weeks and then to try again right away. Today is day 31....no pulling of fur has occurred yet.....but the nest box is in place. I hope we don't have the same experience as before!!! Thanks for posting your story....at least I know that we didn't do anything wrong and this has happened to other people!

Reply
pam
12/16/2017 03:18:38 am

I am having a similar situation. We thought our Belle was not pregnant, the dates passed and no babies. My son and family went out of town or a long weekend and when I woke up yesterday morning the cage was full of fur -- when I got home from work sadly she had a dead baby half out. I was able to gently remove it -- it was huge. The fluid came squirting out and I helped towel her off. I could not feel any more babies, but 7 hours later as I write this, she is in her next making sounds...I don't know what labor sounds are but I am guessing she may be having another.

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Leah
4/14/2017 10:36:52 pm

Thank you so much the same thing happened to my doe yesterday it was her first time breeding (I did not noticed that she was pregnant) I panic seing that she started giving birth out of no where and also seing that the baby she gave birth to was still I was devastated so I took her to the Vet's ER to get her examined and their only solution was to have my doe under go surgery to remove the whole genitalia area to remove the kits I have this rabbit since 2014 and the anestesia risk is really high thanks for helping me calm down and find an alternative solution !!...
I'll try to give feedback on what's happening

Reply
Ginger & stanley hollands
2/22/2019 08:55:13 pm

My rabbit ginger is having her babys tonight we found one dead one, and we are hoping to see if she has any alive ones, this dead one was stuck.

Reply
Cari
9/4/2019 06:13:10 am

We had a similar experience on our first time breeding. My kids were so excited also and it became very traumatic for all of us. It took my doe about 36 hours to deliver all her kits. On the morning of day 31 she had kindled 4 kits and they were all dead, and were spread across her cage, not in the nest box. She was still bearing down and fluid would dribble out but nothing came out, and she made a crying sound. It was so heartbreaking. I gave her bottom a warm soak with about 1/2 inch of water in the tub then towel dried her really well. She still kept bearing down and making these crying sounds. After scouring the internet, I came across a suggestion and gave her a 500mg TUMS. She gobbled it up being fruit flavored. The calcium in the TUMS made the contractions stronger so she could push out the kit. It was a few hours later that she delivered the stillborn. We thought she was done, then a couple hours later she started bearing down again. I gave her another TUMS and sure enough she had a 6th stillborn a few hours after that. It was a traumatic experience but I'm so thankful I came across the TUMS idea and nothing happened to our doe. I will probably never breed her again. I came across a veterinary article that stated a doe that has stuck kits will more than likely experience it again.

Reply
Fern
3/4/2020 03:27:00 am

My Holland lop kits are at day 13 and their eyes have not opened. Is there cause for concern and if so what do I do?

Reply
Natasha Friesen
8/25/2020 12:01:14 am

Did Saige go on to have healthy litters? This just happened to my bunny.

Reply
Desirae Sanders
6/6/2022 02:01:24 pm

It took my Holland lop 6 days to give birth to 4 bunnies, she is pregnant again, and she started to nest almost a week ago, but no bunnies, can you stick something up her to see if there is any bunnies?

Reply



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    A little about me - I love breeding and raising Holland Lop rabbits! I have been blessed the with the opportunity to raise rabbits in the city, and I am so grateful!
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