possible mastitis? Help please. URGENT

my mini Rex doe has a litter of 8, they are 9 days old. The kits are being fed, but I have had to help 2 smaller kits nurse with doe upside down (that went well). But now the doe is not eating her pellets or hay (she had a big appetite the first few days). A few of her nipples are red(almost bloody) and swollen. The kits that I nursed wouldn't suck on those ones. Is this mastitis? What do I do? I have never had a doe with this before. It is her first litter. If I can't get her to eat and drink (she is drinking a few ounces per day only), then I am afraid she won't be able to feed those 8 kits, and she only has a few nipples now to nurse from. When a cow has mastitis, sometimes it helps for a calf to suck it out. So I tried to get a kit to nurse on those nipples but it wouldn't and I didn't want to make the kit get too exhausted, so I gave up.
I will be leaving for 4 days on Thursday and leaving them in the care of my sister. So I have today and tomorrow morning to figure this out for her before I leave. Getting nervous.
I do not have any other litters to foster them to, and would rather not have to make my sister bottle feed them (I have a bottle for kittens).
Sorry, I am a chatter box sometimes. Help please?

http://www.petcaregt.com/rabbits/rabbitmastitis.html

Here is a link that might help if it Mastitis.

Jessykah, everything I have read indicates that antibiotics may be needed. I know this is difficult, since not much is available over the counter. You could try a hot compress (not too hot!) of a teabag to draw out the infection. I don't know if it will be effective but it may make the doe more comfortable. Try giving her some willow twigs with the bark for pain and inflammation. If the doe is more comfortable, she may eat and drink better. I hope someone with first-hand experience will have some answers for you.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/171320.htm

This is a link to a Vet manual.. I wouldn't put antiseptic on a does teats when the kits are nursing, but you do need some antibiotics because the infection is "internal", although she may have got it from a cut or something in her cage.. so you do need to disinfect the nestbox and cage and anything in it. This can be a serious thing.. hopefully you found it on time!

ok thank you all. I will try the recommendations. I will disinfect everything (good thing I saved some of her extra fur when she kindled) and bring her in the house for closer observations. I will have to trust it all to my sister while I am away. Just one problem: different websites are telling me different dosages for penicillin. I cannot decide how much to give and how often? These kits will probably be for pets and meat. Will they be safe to eat when fryers?

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rx/drugcalc.html I'd be careful using penicillin in a small animal. They do not tolerate it as well as our larger livestock and a probiotic may be needed to prevent life threatening diarrhea. I was using tetracycline which is much safer but also much less effective than penicillin. The people I found who reported success using it for mastitis said it took many weeks to clear up the infection. If you have a very familiar farm vet around you might be able to get some metacam to give her for the pain and to get her eating again but most vets require a visit which makes it much more costly and time consuming. The meds themselves usually aren't the expensive part of a vet trip. Not eating though can lead to rabbit death very quickly and will increase the odds of digestive tract problems from the antibiotics.

You also want to strip the milk from the infected teats several times daily. Apply a hot washcloth for several minutes and then try to milk the rabbit. If the milk starts to come out smoothly put a kit on to suck it out. Mastitis can be a very demanding illness to treat and it's highly likely to return in does that get it once. In the end I decided to cull. It just wasn't worth it to save a rabbit that already had strikes against her and would always have a chance of mastitis happening again. My kits were also over 2 weeks old so I didn't have to worry as much about bottle feeding. I just soaked pellets in goat kid formula and fed them that until they were eating solid pellets fine.

1) The penicillin isn't working for the doe. She is in so much pain. Her underside is split right open! Probably going to cull her tomorrow..... It's a doe I had given my niece, and she's going to be so upset at me.
2) 5 of the kits have died today. 2 left. What am I doing wrong? Is the KMR not enough for them? I am feeding them 2ce a day. If they don't die first, I think tomorrow I will turn over another doe (who only has 4 kits now) and let them nurse on her, midday. Then they will get 2 KMR feedings and 1 rabbit feeding. I hope I will not have to report back that they are dead as well...

Well it's almost midnight. Worked a 14 hr day and have to start dairy chores at 5, so off to bed.

Kits are very hard to handfeed. There's a sticky about it somewhere around here with hints and I made post there. I used goat kid formula mixed to double the concentration in the instructions. We've had the best luck with that. You also need some type of probiotic because the kits have no bateria in their digestive tract for digesting solid foods. The doe's milk would normally change as the kits got older helping to adjust their bodies and prime their stomach. Then many animals will eat some of the adults manure to get the bacteria they need in to their digestive tract. Since neither of those things are happening when hand feeding you need to introduce bacteria another way. You can buy bene bac at petstores and some feedstores. The gel is useful because the kits love it. You can also get acidophilus capsules from a pharmacy section for much cheaper. Just add a little of the powder to the milk formula. I would start leaving a dish of pellets soaked in formula where they can reach it. They will start nibbling on it as soon as their eyes open. While does do only feed once or twice a day our substitute milk mixtures often aren't strong enough for that and you may have to throw in a small third feeding or occasionally fourth. Just don't feed too frequently. If their tummies are constantly bursting their digestive tract will not work properly and they will die. Also make sure they are warm or they will be unable to digest the food and die with full bellies.

Jessykah, I'm sorry you are having such a tough time with your rabbits. I agree if the doe is in such pain with a poor prognosis that you need to euthanize her. I don't know how old your niece is, but if she is old enough to have a pet then she is old enough to begin to face up to life's disappointments. Explain gently that it is wrong to let an animal continue to suffer if it is not going to get well.

I wouldn't let the two kits nurse from another doe, for fear of transferring the infection to her. Two failing kits are just not worth the risk, in my opinion. It's a very sad and difficult situation all around, but you're going to just have to grit your teeth and get through it as best you can. It won't always be this tough.

The last 2 kits died this morning. Right Maggie, I had thought about transmitting infection to another doe, but then I forgot. I think my niece will have a harder time accepting the fact that her siblings and cousins still have a pet rabbit, and she will have none. You know how we can be selfish like that. I have considered giving her another, but decided not to. If I keep giving them all rabbits, all my cages will be filled with nothing but other peoples' rabbits and not my own. She can have a cat kitten.
akane, I had read your post about using GMR, but I couldn't justify buying a big bag of it for 7 kits that may not have made it anyways. The GMR wouldn't last long enough to use again, unless I sold it to a goat farmer. That is interesting what you say about the bacteria. I will keep that in mind, if I ever decide to do it again.

I am not a really emotional person when it comes to culling, but when it comes to kits, I am a little soft. I may have to just cull them all if something like this happens again, to not be stressed over it again. (but we all know I may try once more, hehe) At least now I am more educated in this area.

Having watched kits slowly die I am never feeding kits from day 1 again. It's just plain cruel. They are getting culled if that happens again. Once they open their eyes though I've had plenty of luck getting them on to pellets soaked in formula and they all lived.