JoannaH
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I'm Joanna, daughter of Rainey who often posts here. We had a first-time mother (SFx NZ) kindle on Tuesday, a day past her due date. She only had three kits, the smallest litter we've had yet, but they seemed fat, active, and (as far as I could tell) normal. 
Today when I brought them in to check on them they were still fat, warm, and active, but there were tiny white bits on their fur. First I thought they might have lice or mites.
But I didn't see any of the white bits moving, and when I picked a particularly large one off I didn't see legs--it just seemed to be a little flat whitish scale. Sort of like dandruff.
The mother isn't dandruffy, also isn't breathing loudly or sneezing, and her nose is dry. There's a very little bit of whitish-grey matter inside one lower eyelid--I had to hold her up to the light and look closely to see it. (No more, proportionately, I'd say, than i often wake up with in the mornings in my own eyes...)
The weather went from warm and calm on the day she kindled to cold and very blowy now. The kits are in a wooden nest box with a wire floor. She's pulled a lot of fur and mixed it in with their hay; at first she was inclined to pull all the bedding away below them and leave them on bare wire surrounded by hay and fur around and above, so we put a piece of cardboard under the wire floor to reduce drafts. Yesterday (I think) I took that out, as the mother has begun leaving some hay and fur under them.
I'm attaching a birth pic and a this-morning pic. If you have any thoughts about what this could be and/or what needs to be done about it, I would be very glad to hear them.
Today when I brought them in to check on them they were still fat, warm, and active, but there were tiny white bits on their fur. First I thought they might have lice or mites.
But I didn't see any of the white bits moving, and when I picked a particularly large one off I didn't see legs--it just seemed to be a little flat whitish scale. Sort of like dandruff.The mother isn't dandruffy, also isn't breathing loudly or sneezing, and her nose is dry. There's a very little bit of whitish-grey matter inside one lower eyelid--I had to hold her up to the light and look closely to see it. (No more, proportionately, I'd say, than i often wake up with in the mornings in my own eyes...)
The weather went from warm and calm on the day she kindled to cold and very blowy now. The kits are in a wooden nest box with a wire floor. She's pulled a lot of fur and mixed it in with their hay; at first she was inclined to pull all the bedding away below them and leave them on bare wire surrounded by hay and fur around and above, so we put a piece of cardboard under the wire floor to reduce drafts. Yesterday (I think) I took that out, as the mother has begun leaving some hay and fur under them.
I'm attaching a birth pic and a this-morning pic. If you have any thoughts about what this could be and/or what needs to be done about it, I would be very glad to hear them.
