Almost lost the mother!

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Cuddlebug

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
2,907
Location
Aurora, Colorado
Well, I have been waiting for my gorgeous Sally (a white/ebony) to have her kits. Early Friday morning, my husband checked on her and she was sitting quietly in one corner of her cage. She appeared to be sleeping.

When I got up about an hour or so later, the first thing I did was check on her. I found her sitting in the middle of her cage with three very wet kits. Everything looked fine and I picked up the kits to check them out. All three were very lively and looked good, just wet. I gave them back to their mother so she could clean and dry them.

30 minutes later, I checked again, since it bothered me that all three were wet earlier. The kits were all clean and dry and Sally had blood all over her face from eating the placenta but was not trying to clean herself. I picked her up and her entire underside from nose to tail was covered in blood. She also seemed a bit off. I put her back in her cage and she slowly waddled over to a corner and just collapsed. I thought that she had just died right before my eyes.

I immediately took her out of the cage. She was totally limp, unconscious, but still breathing. I was able to wake her up with some gentle shaking. I grabbed the bottle of apple juice and water that I had fixed for her. She took a couple of sips and within a few minutes started looking better. I gave her a couple more sips every 15 minutes. Each time, she improved a little more.

We took her to a vet and he said that she was probably in labor for quite a while before the birth of the first one, and between the effort of delivering triplets, and the amount of blood that the poor thing lost, she had gone into shock. She was given fluids and came home. By this time she was already starting to look a lot better.

At home she began drinking her juice/water when I held the bottle up to her but would not eat anything. I offered her a raisin to see if she would eat it and she took a little nibble and them turned away. An hour later, I tried again and she ate the whole thing. She still would not drink or eat on her own. It was 10:00 pm by the time she finally felt like getting up and going to her feeder. She was still a bloody mess, but I was ready to party!

I have been keeping a close eye on her and she seems to be back to her old self today, eating , drinking and pooping just fine. I did have to give her a hand with cleaning herself up yesterday. she looks a lot better but the blood stained her beautiful white fur pretty badly. I'll give her a dust bath later to see if that will help.

All three kits are doing fine. They've lost a little bit of weight, but momma's milk has not come in yet.

My vet and I both believe that if I hadn't been there when she collapsed, she would probably be dead now and I would be hand feeding three kits.

Oh, and I plan on taking pictures later today. I will be starting a new thread with their pictures and statistics.
 
I'm so sorry your girl had a hard time but am very glad you were there to help her. Thank you for sharing as well as it helps us pet owner remember why we don't want the responsibility of breeding. I can't wait for pictures!
 
Mom is doing great today. Her milk is in but the smallest kit is still losing weight so I am giving him supplemental feedings a couple of times a day.
 
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