# Fast breathing pregnant doe



## weedflemishgiants

Hmm. Glad I found this forum so recently LOL.

My FG doe Rose is in her 22nd day of her first pregnancy. She has had no problems and no signs of being sick with anything. It may be nothing but I thought I would check. She is eating and drinking normally. I fed her about two hours ago and she seemed fine. I checked her just now and she is breathing very quickly. I have seen her do this when she was nervous or hot but never for any other reason. Now I know she is not overly warm, she does not have a fever, no sneezing, no congestion, nothing. Could breathing very quickly be a sign of premature labor?

Mary


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## aurora369

I moved your thread over to the Rabbitry section since this is directly dealing with a pregnant rabbit and the possibility of labour.

I'm am not sure of the answer, but I'm sure one of our knowledgable breeders will be along shortly to help you.

--Dawn


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## RAL Rabbitry

My bred does breathe faster this time of year. It seems that they are more sensitive to heat when they are bred and they are a small breed. I am sure that a flemish would be the same or worse because of their size.

Roger


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## weedflemishgiants

Thank you.

She seems fine. Still breathing faster than she normally does but is not stressed or upset. I AM stressed and upset- she is not.

You are probably correct. It may just be the condition of a bred doe.


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## polly

I agree with Roger they will be more sensitive. Like women always are they go crackers with the heat and never feel cold so they keep telling me


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## BlueGiants

I'd assume she is just feeling the heat. Being pregnant does raise their body temp a little. They don't get rid of the heat as easily. You can set up a fan near by to circulate the air (not blowing on her). Touch her ears and see if they feel a little warm. That can give you some indication. 

22 days is more than half way through gestation. She's probably feeling heavier and just trying to keep herself cool. (Maybe a frozen water bottle wouuld help?)


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## weedflemishgiants

yeah you are right. Her ears are just a bit warmer than everyone elses. So I did put a frozen water bottle in there today. But today it only got up to 49 degrees. On the other hand we did have a very bad heat wave last week where it got to 85.


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## weedflemishgiants

So tonight she stopped eating pellets altogether. Just hay and dandelions and treats off and on. Just a little bit each time. And then she started wandering around from corner to corner with big wads of hay in her mouth.

So I went ahead and gave her the nest box and she went right to work on it. No fur pulling yet but a lot of remodeling of the hay bundles.

Only thing that bothers me is that this is only day 25. I've never had a doe start wanting to nest this early with their first litter. Usually they wait until about 28 or 29 days.

But who am I to argue? I'm only the maid.


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## weedflemishgiants

Rose is driving me crazy. She has done nothing for two days except eat and remodel the nest box. Now she stopped eating again and is frantically decorating her nest box with hay. I mean frantically. But still no fur. She is panting like she just ran a marathon, bulging on all sides now, digging holes in her box, moving hay from here to there and nothing else. argh.

I bought her a pineapple today. Think she might need a treat when she's done burning all these calories.

But then she has always been the fattest of all my does. And she is not due til tomorrow.

One very nice thing- she is the only doe I have ever had that has kept her nest box perfectly clean.


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## polly

Good luck sounds like she isn't far off now I can't wait to see pics of them bet they will be gorgeous :biggrin2:


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## weedflemishgiants

Okay I am feeling free to complain about it here. I am still waiting for Rose. we are all still waiting for Rose. My kids, my husband, me check on her all the time and she is just sitting there, guarding her nest box. so we wait and wait and wait. She was due yesterday or today. And we are still waiting. And waiting, and waiting.

And she is actually getting bigger and bigger. If she does not drop those babies soon, one of us is going to pop.


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## bunnybunbunb

I had a doe go 35 days before, let me just say that the more you check on her the longer she will put it off. Kinda chill off, give her a few hours inbetween each checking. Also I would only have 1 person checking her, so many people may stress her.

I know how it is, when I was first getting live litters it was SOO exciting! Everytime I confirmed a doe pregnant I went into frantic mode, counting down each day, when day 30 came I was checking every 3 hours day and night. Any sign of anything and I started checking more, day 31 and I was running and checking every hour. I have had maybe 4 litters born before day 32 so once day 32 came I pretty much knew it would be that day after the first few litters so I checked every 10 minutes it seemed. It only stressed my does out but now I have had so many litters I can pretty much "smell" when they will have their babies so I can leave them be till I feel it is near time.

Just give her her space, she will have them when you finely leave her a lone or when you least expect it. They love to wait till 4 AM, 8 AM, 3 PM, and 11 PM from my experiance, the latter two being most rare.


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## weedflemishgiants

Yes thanks.

To tell you the truth I have never had a Flemish Giant kindle before 32 days except one that aborted at 14.

Today is day 32 though and I'm still WAITING.:grumpy:


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## bunnybunbunb

Has she had them yet?

I'm currently waiting on a litter of Lionheads, due anytime. While doing my normal palpating checks I noticed this doe was due a day after her sister who had her babies early yesterday morning so I expect the babies will be born tonight or tomorrow morning. Her sister only had 2 in her so this doe may take longer as she has 4 if I remember right.


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## weedflemishgiants

Well good luck to you.

Rose finally had one dead baby born on the wire about an hour ago. It looked just fine- just three days late.All the warming in the world did nothing.

And now I am still waiting. I was told on another thread that more may follow, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I've also been told in no uncertain terms by a couple of people to leave her completely alone. So it is a bit excruciating here.

Hope yours goes better.


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