Hermaphrodite

[sueand56]

Hi folks. I'm mostly a lurker but I wanted to bring up something that absolutely surprised me. I have a doe that has literally turned into a buck, as an adult. I raise meat mutts, a small rabbitry with a mostly Cali buck, a NZ doe and a NZ-Cali doe, daughter of the Cali, and a mutt doe sold to me as a black NZ (but that's another story!). I have not done much breeding this past year due to my husband being ill, not since last spring. He passed away the end of December, and I decided to try and get a litter or two before the summer heat starts here in NC.

Back in the fall the NZ-Cali daughter developed sore hocks and while treating her I examined her genitals and she seemed to have developed a penis. It was confusing because I had bred her in April last year and she delivered 6 healthy kits, all survived. I finally decided she had an enlarged clitoris and didn't worry about it. I went to see if she was ready to breed yesterday and she now has a proper size penis with a slit, scrotal sacs, one empty and one with what feels like a vestigial testicle, although I guess the testicles could be drawn up inside the body. Very confusing as she definitely had kits, all three of my does had kits within a week of each other last spring.

So, breeding is not possible now and I guess she is going to have to go to freezer camp.

 

[Zass]

As it happens in humans, it's bound to happen in other species on occasion. It's just very rare.
:shock:

If she does go to freezer camp, please post some autopsy pictures for us?

 

[shazza]

that's definitely interesting. i would also love to see autopsy photos if you do cull her.

 

[Nymphadora]

:shock:
If you could post pictures of before the autopsy, too, that would be really cool to see! Not to add too much pressure or anything.

 

[MaggieJ]

You might want to consider keeping the rabbit alive, documenting what happened, and donating it to some facility that might be interested in learning more about this matter.

 

[Ferra]

Given that she had a litter, I would make a guess that it is not a congenital issue or birth defect, but probably some variety of endocrine tumor that's caused a spike in testosterone or related precursors.

So if that's the case, depending on where it was and how big, you might not find anything at autopsy.

Because I am a curious troublemaker, I might have been tempted to keep her and see if she gains the ability/desire to fertilize the other does. :shock:

 

[Nymphadora]

Because I am a curious troublemaker, I might have been tempted to keep her and see if she gains the ability/desire to fertilize the other does. :shock:

:yeahthat: