And Another One's Gone....

[3mina]

I was putting a nestbox in for my tri doe tonight when I noticed she wasn't acting right, I pulled her out of her cage and discovered she has mastitis in one nipple, hard, swollen, and abscessed; while I was examining her it burst

If I spray the wound with BluKote before she kindles will that help keep the kits from being infected until I can switch the litter with one from my cull doe? I'm planning on cleaning the litter before I switch too to cut the risk of infection.

I'm not going to try to save this doe for several reasons, this is one issue too many with this doe and she's on strike three. Her first litter with me she didn't feed and I lost 8 of 10, I bred her back immediately and she missed, and now this.

 

[Miss M]

Poor girl!

If I spray the wound with BluKote before she kindles will that help keep the kits from being infected until I can switch the litter with one from my cull doe? I'm planning on cleaning the litter before I switch too to cut the risk of infection.

I would think that Blu-Kote would not prevent the infection from being picked up by the kits. I don't know that they would actually get sick, but they could pass it to the other doe and cause her to have mastitis.

 

[katiebear]

I am so sorry that this is happening to her, and you...I wonder if she had the beginnings of this with the litter that she didn't feed... I don't have any answers for you, But please know you have my sympathy..

 

[3mina]

I don't think so katiebear, the litter she didn't feed was kindled in March, then she missed, and her latest litter was kindled at the end of April. It wasn't a huge litter either, only six and they've been weaned for quite a while now.
A friend of mine said she had one doe with mastitis raise a litter who had no issues nursing while she treated the infected teat. She just kept it clean with peroxide and expressed it. She said the kits avoided the infected teat.

 

[Zass]

I just described this on another thread, but..I purchased a good proven doe who inexplicably failed to pull hair on one litter for me, and then failed to nurse the next.

Autopsy revealed small abscesses on two teats. (but no swelling or active infection, just firm cheesy pus)

So, some does might nurse though it, but others may choose not to.

 

[3mina]

That makes sense and solidifies my decision to cull her since health is one of my cull points and this is the first rabbit I've had with this.

 

[Zass]

That makes sense and solidifies my decision to cull her since health is one of my cull points and this is the first rabbit I've had with this.

:yes: I'd do the same without hesitation. You can consider euthanasia a kindness.
Mastitis is incredibly painful. I know that from personal experience.
I don't have any clue as to how bad a puss filled teat bursting would feel, but I bet it's not pleasant.

 

[3mina]

I'm going to equate it to bursting a sty on an eyelid :doc: I did that once and it felt like I'd pulled my eye out for a second.

This doe kindled last night and had 11 but only 3 survivors and she had half of them on the wire, although I think she did because they were DOA. They were sort of fanned out in front of her. In any case, this is strike 3.