3 strikes!

[Jessykah]

This NZ mixed doe I have is driving me bonkers! It takes so long to get her pregnant every time, She urinates on her kits so that they freeze and die, and now her last batch of kits were not growing well. She had 6 kits. 3 were very skinny and not gaining weight (2 of the 3 died at about 6 weeks old, the other I culled) The other 3 gained weight ok, I butchered today... they had unhealthy looking livers and kidneys, and one of them only had one kidney, and it was very large! Have you ever seen this before?
Needless to say, she will be butchered tomorrow. I don't want to, but she is loosing weight too. I think she is old.
Anyone here ever seen a rabbit with one kidney? It didn't seem to affect its overall appearance or eating/drinking/gaining weight ability.

 

[MaggieJ]

I've never seen a rabbit with one kidney, but it is not unknown in mammals of any species, including humans. Mammals can function quite well, as a rule, with just one kidney. I would think it was just "one of those things" that the rabbit had only one. It may have been larger because it was doing the work of two.

Were the livers spotted with white or yellowish nodules? That would point to coccidiosis, a protozoal infection. If that is the case, the meat is edible but the organs should be discarded.

You may want to review the sanitation in your rabbitry. The only time I have seen bad livers in my rabbits is a litter with bad habits: pooping and peeing in their feed and water. The litter was large and the doe did not train them well... Likely she threw her paws up in despair. I culled the whole line, sanitized the cage and have had no problems after that.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

One of the more common transplants done in humans is for kidneys- convenient because most of us have a spare. (Well, it might not exactly be common.) So I would chalk that up to the law of averages. As for it being large, maybe that was the bodies' way of compensating for their being only one?

As for the skinny kits, I have the same problem right now with one of my does. She had 7, and I'm down to 2. I em'd my breeder asking about it, and she says that sometimes in winter does milk production drops, perhaps being nature's way of limiting litter size during times of scarce forage. One of the two is really tiny and now you've got me worried with yours dying at 6 wks- mine is three wks.