Urgent - Post mortem c-section...anyone ever had any luck?

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MamaMandy

MamaMandy

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Victoria is now on day 35 and is having trouble getting around. Her back end seems weak and uncoordinated. I spoke to a local breeder that I trust and she said my only real option is to dispatch the doe and then quickly try to cut the babies out. I've never even put a rabbit down before...not sure how good my chances are here. I have a friend that is willing to help me, so I'll have an extra set of hands. Any advice would be much appreciated. I do have another nursing doe that I can flip to feed any possible surviving babies. I'll be taking both does over to my friend's house here in just a bit. Thanks in advance for any help here.
 
Okay, Shave her belly before dispatching
- be quick about dispatching- One solid blow,

Immediately cut -Dead center of the abdomen, from rib to vent, BUT ONLY through the skin

Then cut the muscle, lift out uterine horns, cut from cervix to head end

Have hands available to r emove sacs, placenta, and astimulate/dry the babies

You must be sorta rough with the kits-- it is the 'rough' handling of contractions and cleaning that gets kits breathing!!

If it looks like there is fluid in lungs, place kit in palm of hand- head at finger tip, and gently swing the kit in enclosed hand, head down.

Egg incubators make great kit incubators, as well!

best of luck-- you can do this...
 
So glad you got such a thorough and quick response by Terry! Good luck! :clover:

So sorry you have to dispatch the doe, but hopefully you can at least save some kits.
 
That's very hard to even think about doing, but I hope you get some live kits out of it.

Terry gave such a wonderful, thorough response though.

I am so sorry, and sending my best your way.
 
I sure hope it works out. You will have a little time to work with. I dispatched that doe for FC that ended up being bred and her kits were still alive when I opened her up. I am sure you will do just great. :)
 
Thank you everyone for all your support and especially to you Terry for your great instructions. Here is the report...we managed to dispatch her without any major issues. It was just a matter of getting the nerve up, and that took a bit...we've neither one ever put a rabbit down before. I held her back legs firmly and she pulled down on her head. The muscle spasms were a bit disconcerting but I expected it and I could tell by her eyes that she was truly gone. We opened her up quickly and to our surprise...no babies! We did find some odd things though. We didn't take any pics because I just expected to be delivering babies and trying to save them so I'll just have to describe it. Her intestines looked extremely full and distended. Her stomach was completely full of mushy food and so were about half of her intestines. Is that normal? What I and my friend, were feeling that we were positive were at least 2 babies were actually these weird knots. I'm not sure if maybe they were in her uterus? It was kind of hard to tell. Anyway, we cut them open just to see what they were, and lots of very thick, white, smelly, sticky-looking stuff poured out. I also found a small white mass in her lower abdomen...maybe a tumor? There were also a couple globs of meaty looking tissue in what we thought might possibly be the uterus. Now, her lungs and kidneys looked great, but she was truly just skin and bones. She's been losing weight for awhile but looked bloated (which is partially why I was sure she was pregnant). I'm very confused, but also relieved. I know she had to be in pain and I know we did the right thing. I also feel better knowing that I didn't breed her and cause her death. Obviously something else was going on...cancer, or blockage of some sort, or maybe both. I'd love to know if anyone else has seen anything like this before. Thank you all for your help and support!
 
Pasturella?????? make sure you clean anything that came into contact with her and away from the rest of the herd.

I am super sorry that you had to go thru this. I never liked dispatching animals even when it was by choice for FC. That is what has turned me to raising pets and show rabbits.
 
Glad you were able to get through it, MamaMandy. It takes guts! (Intestinal fortitude, my grandmother would have said.) And it sounds like you did the right thing, saving the poor girl from additional pain and suffering.

Terry gave you great advice. It would have been harder to proceed without it.
 
Sorry about your doe. :(

The lumps with the pus sound like Pasteurella abscesses. The stomach and intestinal contents sound normal. I am not sure what the meaty structures were.

Good job doing the necropsy. It is so much better to know what you are dealing with.

I would take a close look at your other rabbits for any lumps. My buck Floyd had one that was between his foreleg and his rib cage. They can be anywhere- I had a house rabbit many years ago that developed one in her eye.

I haven't had any more cases of abscesses in my herd since Floyd, and I hope the same will be true with your rabbits.
 
The puss in the uterus sounds like pyometra a uterine infection. It explains her symptoms too.
 
LindseysWoolies":av3bfaki said:
The puss in the uterus sounds like pyometra a uterine infection. It explains her symptoms too.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking after I heard there was no babies.
 
good call on culling her. I'm thinking as well a uterine infection.

Glad you were able to do the job necessary to alleviate suffering. Sign of good animal husbandry.
 
I am doubtful that it was pyometra. In a typical pyo, the uterus and horns would have looked like stuffed sausages, filled with pus, not localized "weird knots"... although it is possible. :?

In the link to pyometra images below, the fifth row of pics shows a cat uterus with pyo that presents as abscesses, but it is not a typical presentation of pyo as can be seen by the majority of images:

https://www.google.com/search?q=pyometr ... 80&bih=880
 
Actually, now I am positive it was a uterine infection. Stuffed sausages is a great way to describe what we saw. The pics were very similar MSD. Thank you. When I said knots I knew that wasn't exactly the right word. That must have been the uterus then...we thought it was. It looked very angry and red. Poor girl. That was no doubt painful. I am wondering now if it started after her last litter... she had sort of a traumatic delivery of 8 babies (7 stillborn and 1 peanut) and she seemed to have lost too much blood. Thank you all for your encouragement... I surprised myself that I was able to do it and actually handle it all as well as I did. It was definitely a learning experience. I think being on this forum has given me lots of confidence and I thank you all for that.
 
I'm glad you have a definitive diagnosis now! :D

I too have RT to thank for having the strength to do a necropsy. Before I joined, I had a buck die for no apparent reason, but I buried him. I couldn't bring myself to even skin him. I hadn't even processed any rabbits for the table yet, and cutting up my sweet buck was repugnant to me. I wouldn't have known what "normal" looked like in any case.

Having the support of the RT community when Black Floyd developed an abscess made all the difference to me.

We are a pretty lucky group, aren't we? :D
 
Yes, MSD! I feel so much better now. We are a lucky group. :)<br /><br />__________ Sat Dec 22, 2012 3:10 pm __________<br /><br />Just had a thought... no wonder I thought she was pregnant, since the lumps I felt were in her uterus.
 

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