Kit with major scratch on rump from mom

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ozemba

ozemba

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I have some day old kits, I was checking them over this morning and mom got agitated, jumping in and out of the box. When I got the box out to check the kits, one has a decent sized scratch that seems pretty deep, the skin is gaping instead of clotted shut.

What can I do to help this kit, and what can I do to lesson the doe's agitation?
 
nothing much you can do about the kit, either it'll heal on its own or the kit will die. trying to patch it up would probably cause the mom to overgroom the kit.
As for the mom, make sure she has food and water and plenty of space outside her nest. If she doesnt calm down, remove the nest box while you do your thing and then give it back when done.
You could also take out the nestbox in general and control feeding time yourself, plenty of people on here do that, if you did you could bandaid the kit without too much risk I think. I dont personally control feeding time, a couple of my does dont produce much milk at the same time so they like feeding very often in small quantities and trying to control it would put the babies at risk in my case.
 
Ozemba, have you tried giving the doe a treat to distract her from what you are doing? It doesn't always work, but quite often it does. Something hard and crunchy like a short piece of thick carrot is good because it takes a few minutes to eat.

Other things to try:
If you can safely remove the whole nest box, then you can check the kits at leisure. Give a treat when putting the box back. The doe will jump in to check that they are okay, but probably only once.

If all else fails, have a carrier or spare cage handy and put the doe in it before you start. Do all your chores while she is safely confined. Give a treat when you return her to the cage.

Edited to add:
Trimming the doe's nails well in advance of kindling (maybe when you breed her?) reduces the chance of the kits being hurt.

Or make her wear bunny-slippers. :lol:
 
Do you have a picture? It might not be the mother. There's a birth defect that appears like a cut right over the center of the rump.
 
I handled them a lot yesterday, I didn't notice a cut yesterday when I was moving them out of the box to clean the bloody nest material out or when I put them back in.

What does the birth defect entail? That the kit wouldn't make it? <br /><br /> -- Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:50 am -- <br /><br /> Kit seems to be healing fine. Instead of bringing mom in to see babies I'm doing it the opposite way now, taking babies to mom. She's much happier with the accommodations I think.

I've got two litters shelved now, a litter of blues and blue torts and a litter of broken torts and harlequins, the are so cute and wriggly.
 
I have used liquid bandaid called newskin. Here is a link with an image of the bottle. https://www.zoro.com/honeywell-north-li ... WlEALw_wcB
A bottle will last a long time. I only use it if it is a gaping wound like when Mom "cleans" them too well when they are born. I ran out and my husband got the CVS brand and I used it and the kit died so beware of off brands. Also any time you use any kind of chemical medicine you are taking a risk. I'm just saying what has worked for me. I have used it about a eleven times with success and one time resulted in death. However, the death could have been because the wound was just too bad for the kit to recover from.
 

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