I need help ASAP from a knowledgable rabbit breeder or keeper PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ!!

[jessyKflynn]

Hello out there. I need help! I adopted 3 dwarf rabbits off of craigslist for my kids. All were supposed to be does. NOT! 2 got pregnant as I STUPIDLY listened to the previous owner and housed them together as they liked each others company.
Gemma gave birth to 5 healthy babies just over a week ago. Cashmere had one kit a day after and refused to care for it but Gemma took it in as we placed it with hers. This gave her 6 kits. A friend of a friend called me last night and was franitic as she had a rabbit have babies and died doing so! Gemma took those in as well and when I was giving her breakfeast this morning (purina rabbit chow, kale and half a strawberry...in case you need to know) was absolutely fine and behaving quite normally. I fed her at 8am. Around 11am it was getting warm and muggy as its been raining the last few days quite alot I went to get her water bottle to add some ice cubes to it to help her stay cool and I noticed she was laying face down in her bedding (pine shavings) and not moving. I freaked out thinking she was dead. But shes not. I have brought her in and checked her over a million times and theres no marks, no cuts, wounds..she doesnt have a hair out of place! Ive been searching the internet for hours and even examined her backbone to the best of my ability and compared it to the other bunnies. Im fairly certain there are no breaks. Im so scared right now. I have no transportation and no cash at the moment. I dont want her to die. Not only would that tear me up bad but her babies and adopted babies will die! I looked up calcium deficiency and couldnt find anything on it in rabbits as I thought maybe 9 was just sucking the life out of her. I ground up one cherry flavored tum and mixed it with water and offered it to her in a syringe. She drank it willingly. She cant hold her head up, sit up or move. PLEASE Im begging if you have any suggestions please help me. I know this is my fault. I shouldve been more certain they were females. Im so sorry. Please anything I can do just tell me. I dont want her to die. I love her to pieces. Please. I feed them purina rabbit chow as well as fresh greens daily, hay, some fruits. They each have their own enclosures now but I do let them out individually for playtime. Gemma was not out today so I know she didnt eat anything out of the ordinary. If you need to know any other info please ask. I just want to save her. PLease help if you can!

 

[jessyKflynn]

To anyone who comes across this post...dont worry about replying to it. Gemma passed away at 12:34am. Moments ago. I dont know what IM going to do about her babies. I guess Im going to attempt to bottle feed them but honestly after all my research this is probably going to lead to their deaths as well. My kids are going to be so up set in the morning. Im upset. Thanks anyways.

 

[Adair Peeps]

Sorry you are going through this. Good luck with the babies.

 

[jessyKflynn]

Thank you. I was up a good bit of the night researching bottle feeding. I feel pretty prepared to give it a go. Ive decided to try fresh goat's milk as that seems to be the most successful alternative.

Good thing Im lucky enough to have an awesome neighbor that just happens to have nigerian pigmy milk goats.

 

[cassie]

Did you happen to come across something that tells you the nutritional make up of rabbit milk vs cow milk? If it is a lot richer, you might want to supplement the goat milk with a little canned milk. The goat milk may not be rich enough. I don't know because I don't know the make up of rabbit milk but you ought to be able to find that info somewhere. Nutritionally, goat milk is very similar to cow milk. It is easier to digest though.

 

[jessyKflynn]

I ended up taking the litter to a rabbit savy vet today. I was darn lucky to not only find one in my area but one open on sundays. She told me to use goat milk based KMR (kitten milk replacer). I was kind of shocked but she also said another great alternative would be puppy replacer. as its very similar to mother rabbits milk. I was unsuccessful at locating the puppy milk but petco had the KMR I needed. After much struggle I got the kits to take alittle bit of it each. The little bottle that came with it had the smallest nipple but it was still so big that I ended up trying a syringe. No luck. I cut the tip of the nipple enough that when the bottle was gently squeezed a drop would form at the tip. I pressed that to their lips and they lapped at it a bit. I just tried again and they took a little bit more. I am going to get the best quality hay I can find tomorrow as the oldest ones are approx 10 days old now and it was suggested to throw out mamas nest and lay them in timothy hay as they will nibble it at this age. The vet also recommended cecotropes (a certain type of rabbit poo different from the little round balls) to be added to the KMR to help set their stomache flora up right. If I couldnt come across those she said to take the regular round poos and dissolve em in the milk. She said it wont contain as much digestive enzymes as the cecotropes but some is better then none. Also after each feeding when they hit about 3 weeks old I am to give them each approx 1-2CC of camomile tea to help prevent bloating. Its all so much to take in and I hope I can do it. Im so nervous. I think I cried just as hard as the kiddos did..lol. They are just the sweetest little bunnies and I hated to lose one. Im gonna give it my best shot though and wish for the best!

 

[Bunnylady]

Sounds like the vet pretty much hit all of the points for you. I'm surprised you didn't find this information during your search; I know it has been mentioned more than once on this forum (and I'm sorry that I didn't answer this thread in a more timely fashion). BYC's sister site, Back Yard Herds, has a subforum just for rabbits; I know this has been covered there, too.

A couple of things I would mention - a lot of rabbit breeders will add dry rolled oats and/or Calf Manna to the pellets that are given to baby rabbits as they start nibbling at solids. Your bunnies should start opening their eyes within a couple of days, they will transition to the solid foods pretty quickly after that.

I am sorry that you lost your doe. You are right, there just doesn't seem to be any information available about calcium deficiency in rabbit does. When a doe dies within a week or two either side of kindling, they usually suspect metabolic problems related to pregnancy and lactation (things like fatty liver disease). My experience leads me to believe that calcium deficiency shows up a bit later - at about 3 or 4 weeks post-kindling. I have had a few does that suddenly died, apparently in convulsions, at about that time; they all had shown no previous signs of problems and had robust, well-fed litters. I had one Netherland Dwarf doe that was discovered shaking, lethargic, and uncoordinated when her litter was about 3 weeks old. My suspicion was calcium deficiency. I crushed some multi-mineral supplement tablets and mixed them with banana, and fed her some over the course of several days. Obviously, I had to wean her litter at that time. The doe fully recovered. Since that doe, I have made a habit of supplementing any doe that seems to be doing an unusually good job of feeding a large litter "just in case."

Good luck with your kits!

 

[jessyKflynn]

Thank you for the information! I posted to this site as in my research a good majority of the blogs I found with good useful info were from this site. I was so lucky to find a surrogate doe for the three day olds (who nursed rather robustly!) but I am still bottle feeding the older ones. They are 11 days old now and they all have their eyes open and are so active! I had to take them out of the nestbox and put them in a regular enclosure. I am nervous about making sure they get their digestive tracts set up right. Do you happen to have any suggestions? I will take your advice and introduce some oats as Im not sure where to get calf manna. I have been feeding them every 6 hrs and only if they act hungry (ex. rooting on my hand or going bonkers if I move the nesting materials.) I don't want to get my hopes up too high but today is day 4 on bottles and they seem to be acting fairly normal and as I said rather active. I am worried that I havent seen any poo. They pee just fine and seem to like to do so as Im feeding them but yeah no poops. Is that okay? Im sorry to ask so much I just want to do the best I can for them Thank you for your time.

 

[irisshiller]

I came accross your post by coincidence - just wanted to say I feel so bad for you!! I have no idea what happened to that doe, but I think you're great for handfeeding all those little babies. I've had rabbit babies before but never had to hand-raise them. Don't beat yourself up - mistakes happen all the time, it's so hard to sex them! I am right now caring for a wrongly sexed guinea pig who ended up pregnant... her first litter ended in tears with all the babies dying... we removed her from the cage too late and now she's pregnant again... all my fingers crossed that she and the babies will be ok this time.

Let us know what happens with your little bunnies!
Good luck!!

Iris.