Easy Ears
Well-known member
Any advice on palpitating your doe? Can't seem to get it right! 
Palpitating your Doe
- Thread starter Easy Ears
- Start date
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The best way I have found to palpate my does is to put them up on a table with a mat under them. Hold them with thier ears under your hand over thier shoulders, kinda pin them to the table. Take your other hand and using just your fingertips, gently pinch them together starting just in front of thier legs down to the ribs up along the spine. I suggest you palpate your bucks first, so you know how the berries feel, so you can tell the difference when your does are pregnant.
:yeahthat: but I start at the ribs and move towards the tail.
Nothing in there will feel like a string or cluster of slightly juicy grapes like embryos.
Liver is too soft/floppy and under the ribs.
Kidneys are firm but are glued to the loin muscle and not floating around in abdomen.
The lower section of their stomach is firm and can be mistaken for a 2 to 3 week fetus but it is much closer to the rib area and doesn't roll in your fingers like a kit in the uterus since it is attached to the rest of the stomach
Formed fecal pellets are too firm, too small and too close to the tail
Nothing in there will feel like a string or cluster of slightly juicy grapes like embryos.
Liver is too soft/floppy and under the ribs.
Kidneys are firm but are glued to the loin muscle and not floating around in abdomen.
The lower section of their stomach is firm and can be mistaken for a 2 to 3 week fetus but it is much closer to the rib area and doesn't roll in your fingers like a kit in the uterus since it is attached to the rest of the stomach
Formed fecal pellets are too firm, too small and too close to the tail
bantambunnies
Well-known member
If you've been successful at palpating before, and you can't now, I'd say she isn't pregnant. If you've never done it before, it may take a few litters to get the hang of it.
I usually hold the scruff with my left hand, with the doe's head turned toward me. It's easiest if she's on a carpeted area. I use my right hand to reach underneath, behind her ribcage. I poke upward gently but firmly into the abdomen with my thumb and forefinger, feeling for grape-sized lumps (at about 12 days). Don't be shy - you have to be fairly rough to hurt the doe. You should palpate between 10 and 14 days.
You're looking for soft (but firm), grape-sized lumps. You may also be able to feel droppings, but these are usually much smaller (think tiny blueberries) and are very hard and firm.
You can also VERY GENTLY palpate when the doe is close to her due date, at which point you would be feeling the hard skulls and the soft bodies of the kits. You have to be very careful not to hurt them at this point.
It can be hard to palpate. But give it a few tries, be patient, and you'll get the hang of it.
I usually hold the scruff with my left hand, with the doe's head turned toward me. It's easiest if she's on a carpeted area. I use my right hand to reach underneath, behind her ribcage. I poke upward gently but firmly into the abdomen with my thumb and forefinger, feeling for grape-sized lumps (at about 12 days). Don't be shy - you have to be fairly rough to hurt the doe. You should palpate between 10 and 14 days.
You're looking for soft (but firm), grape-sized lumps. You may also be able to feel droppings, but these are usually much smaller (think tiny blueberries) and are very hard and firm.
You can also VERY GENTLY palpate when the doe is close to her due date, at which point you would be feeling the hard skulls and the soft bodies of the kits. You have to be very careful not to hurt them at this point.
It can be hard to palpate. But give it a few tries, be patient, and you'll get the hang of it.
