Frustration/Has anyone seen this? *Graphic*

[dltc96]

A little background... We bought a few rabbits last year. The two that we spent the most on have not had successful pregnancies. One of them was older and I think the stress of moving caused her to retain a kit. I processed her to see what might have been wrong (since she was obviously not going to give me any kits). I found one kit retained.

Tonight I processed the second of the two. She may have been about 18 months old. I think she may have retained as well, but they were different sizes. I also found some sort of growth on what I believe are her ovaries. Could these be cysts on her ovaries?

I'm concerned that these may have been viable kits (finally) and I just destroyed them, but we've had so much trouble with this doe. She's never been receptive to any of our bucks, and we've never had success when presenting her (which is what we did this most recent time). The (retained?) kits are larger than grape sized at 11 days (except for the two smaller ones - about blueberry sized).

Any help?

 

[Jack]

size would depend on breed, on this, not a meat guy, I would have opened them up (honestly curious and this kinda stuff don't bother me)

 

[ladysown]

doesn't look to me like babies...but I'm no expert on littles.


You CAN"T shoot yourself for making a wise decision. You just can't.
The mass doesn't look right and even if she were preggers would she have been able to have them with the mass there?

 

[Prisma]

Its not impossible, just not probable, that the two smaller ones were, BUT the larger darker ones are not going to allow kits to pass and the doe probably would've had a painful long death. The larger blacker ones look like retained kits to me. Seen it once before and similar look with a cow that ended up having to be put down because of issues with birthing (one live twin passed after a very hard labor, but there was a dead one from much earlier in the pregnancy that had started to calcify and ruptured during birth of live one sadly). You did what you felt was best, don't beat yourself up over it.

 

[Miss M]

What looks like cysts on the ovary could be the follicles (I think that's what they're called) where eggs for her pregnancy erupted.

Those are kits, but as you noted, there are two different sizes. While it is possible she actually was pregnant with live kits (to be honest, I do believe the larger ones were alive, not trying to make you feel horrible, just noting what I see), I think the situation would have ended up killing the doe and kits anyway, and very painfully. I think you did the right thing by putting her down.

The smaller kits, I am guessing, are retained from an earlier failed pregnancy. They don't display the vibrant blood vessel network the larger ones have. If she had carried them to term, because of her problematic history, I believe the retained kits would have caused major troubles in kindling.

There are occasional cases of a doe passing retained kits safely during kindling, but there is no way to tell how often this happens, and how often retained kits kill the doe.

Ah, I see Rebel.Rose responded, and we differ on which kits are retained, but our assessment is the same. The doe likely would have died, and it would have been very slow and painful.

We butchered late our first litter (we were moving), and found a beautiful, perfect string of marbles inside one of the young does.

Don't beat yourself up. I believe you did the right thing.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

Not saying anything new, just agreeing that I think you did the right thing. That doesn't look normal, and it probably would have caused a lot of pain and misery had she not been dispatched.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I would be interested to see the actual fetuses, to see if two were truly "calcified" or "mummified". Did they feel different from each other?

The "marbles" do look to be of differing gestational age. However, when my daughter saw them, she said "Wow- she had two peanuts!?" which is something I had not considered... :hmm: was she a dwarf breed?

I agree with Miss M that the lumps may be Corpus Luteum (ruptured follicles)... http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafe ... eum+images ... but if they are, there should have been a corresponding number of them to the viable fetuses.

I'm sorry you lost two of your does.

 

[dltc96]

Thanks for all of the information. It sure helps confirm that I made the right decision.

She was a Standard Rex that my daughter bought with her 4H money last summer. She paid too much (in my estimation), which made the decision that much more difficult. The buck is also a Standard Rex, and has sired a couple of great litters now (she did well on that purchase).

This doe did not seem to handle stress well, and would stop eating if anything changed in her world. Starting day 10 or 11 of when she should have been pregnant (each time) she would stop eating and get very thin. She didn't eat at all yesterday, which made us think it was starting again. But, I always thought I felt kits when I palpated; this explains why.

I don't know about doing a dissection, I'll have to think about that for a bit. We are processing chickens today and I might be all done with innards by the time they are finished.

The large masses were a little larger than grape size, while the smaller ones were small blueberry sized. The uterine horn that is not shown in the photo also had a smaller mass (more like pea sized) up toward the end with the ovary. That ovary did not have any of the bumps that the one in the photo has. It just had the follicles showing.

Thanks again.