Deer Heart
Well-known member
EDIT: CAUSE DISCOVERED. Wrong bedding choice for cage style nest boxes were the cause. Mothers were accidentally crushing their kits.
Warning: Pretty graphic descriptions ahead.
I have no idea how else to describe it...
I've never seen anything like this before honestly and this doe has, up till now, successfully reared 3 prior litters.
This was a litter of 7 born on 2/21/18. I generally give moms a day or two to settle down before I start messing with their babies too much but today during chores I noticed the smell of decomp coming from this mom's nestbox. I went to see if maybe one or two died - I discovered all but two were very dead and severely decomposed (they were unrecognizable, it looked almost like she tried to eat them after they died). One of the two still alive appeared to be fine - but the other looked like it was rotting alive. It was screaming the second I touched it and all of the skin on the rear end of it was turning that transparent consistency of something that is long dead and while holding it, it seeped a reddish-light green pasty substance from its rear end. It looked the exact color and consistency of pus with a bit of blood mixed in. I culled it immediately as it was clearly not going to recover from being decomposed from the waist down (and was clearly in pain as it was screaming the entire time).
Has anyone heard of anything like this before? I sure haven't. I'm not even sure the only surviving kit is safe to be fostered to any of my other does and assuming it even is, how to prevent whatever this was in future litters or if it's a sign to cull this doe from my breeding program entirely.
Warning: Pretty graphic descriptions ahead.
I have no idea how else to describe it...
I've never seen anything like this before honestly and this doe has, up till now, successfully reared 3 prior litters.
This was a litter of 7 born on 2/21/18. I generally give moms a day or two to settle down before I start messing with their babies too much but today during chores I noticed the smell of decomp coming from this mom's nestbox. I went to see if maybe one or two died - I discovered all but two were very dead and severely decomposed (they were unrecognizable, it looked almost like she tried to eat them after they died). One of the two still alive appeared to be fine - but the other looked like it was rotting alive. It was screaming the second I touched it and all of the skin on the rear end of it was turning that transparent consistency of something that is long dead and while holding it, it seeped a reddish-light green pasty substance from its rear end. It looked the exact color and consistency of pus with a bit of blood mixed in. I culled it immediately as it was clearly not going to recover from being decomposed from the waist down (and was clearly in pain as it was screaming the entire time).
Has anyone heard of anything like this before? I sure haven't. I'm not even sure the only surviving kit is safe to be fostered to any of my other does and assuming it even is, how to prevent whatever this was in future litters or if it's a sign to cull this doe from my breeding program entirely.