# Doe dies giving birth.



## I_heart_Fraggles

A breeder friend of mine has lost one of her best doe's. A large chinchilla who has had litters in the past and was a excellent mother. She was fine the day before her due date. Making a nest and was very large. My friend came home and found Sylvia in her nest box, it looked like she was sleeping but she was dead . There was some blood around her tail. This may sound morbid but my friend opened her up to try and save the kits. It was a large litter and all were dead. There was a large breach birth kit in the birth canal. Could this be what killed Sylvia?


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## amdfarm

I would say yes and it happens more often than most people will tell you about. A breeder friend of mine just had this happen to him last week w/ one of his best show does also. In his case, she'd had 2 that were dead, then she died w/ a belly full of babies still laying next to her dead kits. I don't think he cut her open to count them, but he thinks one got stuck and it caused too much stress for her to handle. They're also very vulnerable in that state, as they are prey animals. This was a Flemish Giant.

Sorry about Sylvia, her kits and for your friend's loss. It's a hard blow.


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## I_heart_Fraggles

Thanks for the reply. She is really torn up about losing such a good doe. She was very friendly to,always wanting attention. My friend was very much looking forward to this litter. There were ten kits all together. She found Sylvia soon after death and was hoping she could get to the kits in time. Sylvia was beautiful, very large and with a great coat. She was very important to the herd.


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## amdfarm

My friend feels the same about this doe and the litter, as well. That doe had been showing great this year, she got BOV at Nationals and then was bred. It was going to be a super litter, too. This was her first litter, so she was a young doe. A year old. I loved her, she was a nice looking and very sweet girl.
That wasn't his only loss this last week either. He lost another great doe and an entire litter from another good doe that were all born dead. That doe is okay, though. Thankfully, she's my does full sister and the other one that died was their mother.  Such a bad deal. He's just sick about it. I have the only grandbabies of that doe so he might take a buck and a doe both to keep those lines in his herd going.


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## I_heart_Fraggles

Yes it is not my friends only recent loss also. About a week and a half ago she lost a beautiful lionhead buck for unknown reasons. He was fine then he was dead, his name was Louie Lionhead. She has a doe pregnant with his kits she is due soon and she has one of Sylvia's daughters from her last litter. She also lost two really nice kits from her big chocolate rex doe at 4 and 6 weeks old. The chocolate doe only has one eye from an unknown accident as a kit so she is strictly a herd doe. But her babies are beautiful and she has big litters. But she lost the two nice looking kits then the lionhead and then Sylvia in a months time. Luckily her best rex doe just threw a litter of healthy broken blue babies and they are going to be lovely.


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## amdfarm

It's unfortunate, but it happens. Their mother had kits already, just three, all boys... about three weeks old. Found her dead in her cage w/ her babies around her. So very sad. No clue what happened to her. The babies should be okay, as they're older.
Broken blues, my second favorite color/pattern!! I bet they're lovely!


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## I_heart_Fraggles

Yes they are lovely and I so want one so I can start showing again. But Fraggles does not like other rabbits except her special "friend" (please see my post in behavior). But my breeder friend bred her best black doe to the most BEAUTIFUL blue buck. When I say beautiful I mean 8 BIS in two years and I don't even know how many legs. For some reason she got a litter of 7 and everyone of em is a broken blue! But there going to be perfect so nobody cares. I had rabbits in 4h and recently got back into them when I rescued Fraggles at 5 weeks from a litter of meat rabbits. Wish I could have taken them all  I wanna start showing again :sigh:


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## GorbyJobRabbits

Lisa pretty much covered it. And I'm extremely sorry to hear it =(


I lost a litter last week that I had veryyyyy much expecting. She was a first time momma and seemed to be pretty proud.

I wanted to take pics of her building her nest, and she had to come up to the door to show me what she was doing =)







When I went out to check her the next morning she was in the box so I figured I'd give her privacy... went out later there were 2 dead in the box. Born dead. One that she had partially chewed, and she was struggling with a 4th. She was trying to pull it from herself and that was just ripping the body up, my making her move helped the kit come the rest of the way out, and it was born feet first. Later that evening a 5th kit was passed, it was DOA as well.

After having 3 DOA, and seeing the one coming out backwards, it was safe to assume everything was born backwards and that is what killed them.


I gave her a few days and had friends loan me a buck yesterday, and hopefully her second litter will work great for her =)


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## I_heart_Fraggles

My friend has been breeding for many years and I think this is only her second or third dead doe. I know she did lose another some years ago to a pro lapse but managed to save most of the kits.


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## Nancy McClelland

:bigtears:


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## pamnock

Vertex or breech presentations are both normal for rabbits. I've seen them get "stuck" in either position.


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## majorv

If this happens once to a doe then are they more at risk of it happening again? I have a Himalayan doe who has had a couple of litters, but this last time she had two born dead at 35 days. It looks like one of them might've been stuck in the birth canal because it was unusually long for a newborn. They both had cuts on them, like maybe she was trying to pull them out. Her litters are normally 5-6 kits, so two is unusual. The doe seemed to be fine and Ibred her again, but now I'm concerned it could happen again. Could she still haveunborn kits still inside her???


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## rabbitgeek

It's a bummer when that happens.

I had an American Blue doe that died on her first litter. Her Grand Champion Certificate arrived in the mail a few days after.

Have a better day!


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## Jazuniga92

My doe went into labor today and gave birth to a live kit in the proses of giving birth to her second kit she died &#128553; Now I'm trying to care for the baby but I don't know how much or how often to feed it could someone help please


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## majorv

Hi, sorry for the late reply. Were you able to feed it? It will be very tough to hand rear it if you can't find someone with a nursing doe to foster it to. There are recipes out there to feed newborns with. You can search this site also, to get it.


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