Morning Star
Member
I have a bit of a situation on hand. I recently ( two days ago ) bought five Flemish Giants from someone. They were all community raised with two neutered males which I am not sure what to do with, and three non-spayed does which I will hopefully be able to use for breeding once they're all healthy and settled.
The good news: They're all of good weight, all very alert and have normal poops/pee, enjoy their greens and hay, are drinking and don't have any bad injuries that I can see.
The bad news: They're sick. They have eye-boogers and one of them has her second eyelids showing just a bit in the corners, one of them has hutch burn and HAD an open sore on a hock which is already healing up thank goodness. They also have pus, goop and pustules around their genitals with one doe having a pretty swollen vulva area. I didn't get to take a look at it for long but it seemed rrreeally puffy and looked like it had pus-like strings and odd discharge on/around it.
Do you think this is just a bunch of cases of hutch burn presenting differently for each bunny or may I have something more serious?
attached are pics of one of the pustules ( they look pretty much the same, rabbit to rabbit, as far as pustules go ) and the one that has really bad hutch burn. They ALL REEK of urine too, and I intend on giving them very careful bunny baths soon.
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SECOND ISSUE: I have a pregnant NZ doe that recently dropped a LOT of weight in a week. We're talking perfectly healthy, good weight preggers doe, suddenly dropped so much that I could feel her spine like she was a walking skeleton. This was very rapid and happened after I'd last palpated her ( @ 15 days, felt quite promising ) and now I am pretty sure she's absorbed the kits. I was feeding her enough, she just completely stopped eating what I was giving her. Ended up keeping her close to me/hand feeding and getting her to take water off greens for a couple days. She perked back up from a REALLY alarming lethargy where she wouldn't hop or go for food or anything and I'm pretty sure her gut had almost completely shut down... tiny shriveled poops! Now she's back up to normal poo and normal eating after about a week and a half, and I'm feeding her lots of pellets, timothy hay bought specially for her since she's refusing the other hay I have, 2-3 cups of greens a day, steel cut oats, and one fruit treat per day like a berry or an apple or orange slice, & etc.
My worry is, she was due to kindle yesterday. I don't want to palpate her again just in case, but if she hasn't kindled in 4 days, should I rebreed? Wait til she's of good weight again?? She's putting weight on again, her spine is no longer pointy and super-defined and her ribs no longer feel like a xylophone but her pelvis area feels very gaunt and bony still and I don't know if I want to risk breeding her again so soon, or if I want to breed her again PERIOD after this. She is a proven doe, has had two litters and I in fact have two of her kits but..... this was very harrowing.
I am also wondering what would have made her start refusing her feed like that. If it's communicable, I deeefinitely don't want to breed her as it would probably result in sick kits and/or a sick buck.
The good news: They're all of good weight, all very alert and have normal poops/pee, enjoy their greens and hay, are drinking and don't have any bad injuries that I can see.
The bad news: They're sick. They have eye-boogers and one of them has her second eyelids showing just a bit in the corners, one of them has hutch burn and HAD an open sore on a hock which is already healing up thank goodness. They also have pus, goop and pustules around their genitals with one doe having a pretty swollen vulva area. I didn't get to take a look at it for long but it seemed rrreeally puffy and looked like it had pus-like strings and odd discharge on/around it.
Do you think this is just a bunch of cases of hutch burn presenting differently for each bunny or may I have something more serious?
attached are pics of one of the pustules ( they look pretty much the same, rabbit to rabbit, as far as pustules go ) and the one that has really bad hutch burn. They ALL REEK of urine too, and I intend on giving them very careful bunny baths soon.
---
SECOND ISSUE: I have a pregnant NZ doe that recently dropped a LOT of weight in a week. We're talking perfectly healthy, good weight preggers doe, suddenly dropped so much that I could feel her spine like she was a walking skeleton. This was very rapid and happened after I'd last palpated her ( @ 15 days, felt quite promising ) and now I am pretty sure she's absorbed the kits. I was feeding her enough, she just completely stopped eating what I was giving her. Ended up keeping her close to me/hand feeding and getting her to take water off greens for a couple days. She perked back up from a REALLY alarming lethargy where she wouldn't hop or go for food or anything and I'm pretty sure her gut had almost completely shut down... tiny shriveled poops! Now she's back up to normal poo and normal eating after about a week and a half, and I'm feeding her lots of pellets, timothy hay bought specially for her since she's refusing the other hay I have, 2-3 cups of greens a day, steel cut oats, and one fruit treat per day like a berry or an apple or orange slice, & etc.
My worry is, she was due to kindle yesterday. I don't want to palpate her again just in case, but if she hasn't kindled in 4 days, should I rebreed? Wait til she's of good weight again?? She's putting weight on again, her spine is no longer pointy and super-defined and her ribs no longer feel like a xylophone but her pelvis area feels very gaunt and bony still and I don't know if I want to risk breeding her again so soon, or if I want to breed her again PERIOD after this. She is a proven doe, has had two litters and I in fact have two of her kits but..... this was very harrowing.
I am also wondering what would have made her start refusing her feed like that. If it's communicable, I deeefinitely don't want to breed her as it would probably result in sick kits and/or a sick buck.