Bizarre kit deformity

[Phacelia]

My NZR doe kindled this afternoon - 13 babies!! Kind of a surprise since she kindled 7 her first time and only 2 last time.

All of them look pretty good, albeit some understandably small.

However, one kit has a really strange eye deformity.

I thought maybe at first a piece of foreign matter got jammed into his eye socket, but he is just a few hours old. It looks more like a growth.

Has anybody seen anything like this before? :shock:

 

[Susie570]

I've only seen that sort of thing on pictures of stillborn kits. Strange, but perhaps it's still a viable kit?

 

[Phacelia]

It's just the one eye. He seems normal, otherwise. So maybe?

 

[Susie570]

Does it have dwarf lines, or is it closely inbred?

Look up Max Factor deformity.

 

[Dood]

Freaky

Looks like cryptophthalmos

Warning - if you google it it can be pretty graphic

 

[Phacelia]

Oh God. :x :shock: verreaction: Yeah, thanks - I won't be sleeping tonight. :lol:

In all seriousness, though, it does look similar to that.

Syberchick70, the Max Factor thing came up on the meat rabbit FB page too. I don't really know much about this rabbit's genetic background, so can't tell you there. She was bred to a very genetically distant buck, however (completely different breed acquired from a different locale).

I would guess it's just something totally random, but I don't really know. :shrug:

 

[Dood]

Max factor is hereditary so I would expect it cropping up more often than 1 out of 22 kits :shrug:

I think it is just a one time random genetic mutation

 

[Susie570]

Well, I guess just see how the kit does. Keep us updated and good luck with it.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I had a kit like that in a Rex litter once a year or two ago. I figured someone must have crossed MR into the Rex lines somewhere, and it was Max Factor.

I haven't had one since, so agree with Dood that it is a fluke. I would of course watch for it out of this particular cross again, but otherwise just chalk it up to a random defect.

By the way, even if the kit survives, that eye is going to die because the eyelids themselves are misshapen and it obviously isn't blinking and hydrating the eye with tears.

I would cull it. The doe has 12 other kits to feed already, and heartless as it sounds, feeding that one would just be a waste of milk.

 

[akane]

It'll be blind and risk infection so I'd probably cull it too. I have not seen that outside of my dwarf rabbits but max factor is not so predictable as a simple recessive depending on the breeding. Some pairs from the same rabbitry will consistently throw max factors and peanuts but pairs from another rabbitry or crossing between rabbitries might cut it down to the odd 1 in 10-20 kits. Add in real world statistics instead of what should happen and you can get strange one time events.

 

[Phacelia]

Thanks for your input guys.

So am I to understand this is a deformity of the lid not forming, and not the eye itself? The eye looks like a little lead ball. :?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

The eye looks like a little lead ball. :?

Yep. The reason kit's eyes aren't open when they are born is because they are still developing.

I just found the post I made about my deformed kit. It was a lot worse than yours, with a perforated abdomen and exposed organs.

GRAPHIC PICS:

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