[OhLaLa]

First litter of 3 to doe. Clean hay went in for nest. Eyes just opening and I've checked them over to find two kits have lesions in their fur near their hindquarters, and a problem with one eye. The third looks fine.

Sourced my books, can't find anything similar mentioned.

I've changed the nest so it's clean (they are 2 weeks old today), the doe (and buck) powdered for fleas a couple of months before mating. She has been fed ok and the water is always fresh too, so what's gone wrong?

Would she have done it? Has something got into the cages (mice/small rat)?

Can anyone throw any light on this?

[CameronS]

I have found that first time mums to be scared of their offspring, attacking them in fright, trying to protect herself. She may have nipped the skin with her teeth in trying to clean them. The eye infection could be due to being poked in the eye by a sharp piece of hay, for this reason we allways used old towels, and as they got older slowly introducing, hay and woodshavings.
Rats and mice would have killed the babies had it been them, the chances are a good mother would fight them off, i saw one of my bucks this morning chasing a dog rat away from the hens so i know they can do it.

You could clean the wounds with a weak, salt soultion then rub with a child strength antispetic and try to stop the mother from licking the area

[OhLaLa]

Thanks for the reply, very helpful and makes a lot of sense.

We've come to the conclusion it is the mum who has nipped them. It appears their eyes weren't opening as gooed up, we've bathed their eyes and two of them are looking much better and opening ok, the third kit though - not so good.

How often/when do you change the towels? I'll consider doing that next time but the whole 'sleep' area is hay, it would be too large an area not to have hay in there, also, she may choose not to nest on the part with the towels?

 

[princesspiggy]

i knew  continental giant that ate its babies ears off by accident.

[OhLaLa]

i knew continental giant that ate its babies ears off by accident.

Interesting. Not sure what breed ours is, but it is a large meat breed.

One of the kits has a bit of the top of it's ear missing. Hope our doe is better with the next litter, or it looks like she will have to go.

 

[Budo1]

If this is the does forst litter she may be unsettle.. try not to desturb her too much for few days.. the hutch should be cleeaned thouroughly a couple of days before she kindles and then appart from a sneaky look to remove dead or injured she must be left alone.
they become nervouse and try moving the kittens around. A possible cause could also be her claws.. have you clipped her nails down? she will only sit on the nest to feed them 2x a day and position herself above them.. it seams quite clumsy compared to the was many other animals care for their young...she may have accidently scratched with her nail whilst walking over nest.. make sure the area is clean and fly free..other than that they will heal quickly.... ensure dry bedding so that flies arent attracked or there is a possibility of fly strike.

[Hopewell]

When this happens it is can be that the mother is being too vigorous with cleaning them when they are born. It is of course entirely normal for the mother to eat the placentas etc.

[OhLaLa]

Thanks for replies. Hard to be sure what was going on, but I think mum is a wee bit unsociable. One kit went with her into new cage at weaning time and it developed a very large cyst, and then another poss nip mark on the back of the neck. The cage she has is very large (a run of 3, over 6ft x 2.5ft in total) so they had plenty of room. The two that were separated doing fine.