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A long bunny pregnancy - sad update Post 6

The seven buns I rescued from a 'rescue' have multiplied into 14 - one of the little girls Angel gave birth last Friday so we have a nest full of babies.

Up until last Friday Angel had been sharing a cage with her sister Crystal but we took her sister out when Angel started nesting. A few hours later Crystal started nesting too - moving hay into the corner, trampling it down, adding more hay but nothing else happened. Tuesday night Crystal didn't want her food although eventually she ate some lettuce. On Wednesday I took her to the vet who said she was due to give birth. He tried to x-ray her to see how many babies there were but they didn't show up on the xray, he did however hear fetal heartbeats (at least 2).

Here we are two days later and still no babies. We have had Crystal since Monday 17th December midday and she has not been in contact with any buns other than her sister since that time. If gestation is 30 / 31 days she is now surely overdue! We've had her 32 days. Please feel free to count this yourself - I failed maths O level 5 times :oops:

Has anybody had experience of this? I am getting more and more concerned but I am reluctant to take her on the hour and half drive (one way) to the vets as I don't want to distress her needlessly.

Any advice please RU? All these buns have had such an awful time and deserve some help and love.

Thanks
 
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Rabbits can suppress their pregnancies if they are in bad conditions, overly stressed ect. It may be possible that her true gestation only began after you brought her home?

I rescued a bun last year that went on to give birth well after the normal gestation period. I also know a bun that managed to be pregnant with 2 litters. She came into rescue and gave birth, then about 3 weeks later she gave birth again despite having no further contact with a male since before she came into the rescue :?

Buns are strange things, I would keep her warm and calm and wait, he babies will most likely come when they are ready. If she starts acting differently and you are worried I'd phone your vet for advice xxx
 
Thanks for the reply. She came from horrible conditions and must have been very frightened and stressed. Poor bun

I am focusing on keeping her eating and offering all sorts of everything. When she was x -rayed the vet said her bones haven't calcified - i understand that this is due to a poor diet?
 
28 days is the norm but they can go up to about 34/35 if I remember correctly. I would monitor her carefully for any signs of distress that might indicate an issue with giving birth and give her a few more days to produce, if she's still not done anything maybe another vet trip to work out what's going on.
 
Crystal has given birth to a still born baby - looking at him / her he is bigger than Angel's babies who are a week old today.

I am so upset that this little bun has gone through pain and discomfort over the last couple of days and didn't even get a baby out of it - that :censored: 'rescue' allowed this to happen by not keeping their rabbits safe. The little baby looked deformed too, he / she appeared to have a leg missing, not nibbled off, just nothing there.

I hate to think what horrors these buns have experienced. I'm just sat here in tears saddened by the loss of a little life, the pain the mammy bun has gone through and feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of raising funds to get 14 buns vaccinated / speyed / neutered and many of them re-homed in suitable homes - how will I know the homes are right?

I feel like taking a photo of the baby and posting it one the 'rescue's' fb page - people keep saying what a wonderful job they are doing, they either don't know or don't care about the rabbits we took or the 'working cats' in the barn - I know they are rehoming dogs and I applaud that, but they have caused the suffering this girl bun has gone through, also the 7 babies were conceived because they didn't keep their buns safe and Seren's partner was killed by their starving cats! And the RSPCA haven't even come back to me! Priceless!
 
I'm so sorry :( has she had any others? Maybe a vet visit to check no babies are left inside? Poor buns, least they are safe with you now :love:
 
I'm so sorry :( has she had any others? Maybe a vet visit to check no babies are left inside? Poor buns, least they are safe with you now :love:

I've rung the vet who examined her two days ago - at the time he thought he felt two babies but couldn't pick them up on x-ray as their bones hadn't calcified and neither had Crystal's - I believe that's to do with poor diet.

The vet said to see how she goes tonight and if necessary he can fax a local vet a script tomorrow so we can pick up some medication from a local vet. We are snowed in anyway, can't get our cars out tonight.

Poor buns :(
 
Poor little thing :( I would like to know what rescue it is just so I can make sure I haven't liked them on my FB page or anything. Well done for taking them in and giving them a chance of a proper happy life x
 
:evil: :censored: where are the RSPCA on this?

I am so, so sorry for you... Having to go through this heartache... And poor mumma bun... :cry:

But I applaude your kindness and quick thinking to take on these buns. Thinking of you, hang on in there. ((hugs)) xx
 
I am so sorry for mummy bun. You are doing an amazing job. do yiu have a Paypal acc? Would like to donate small amount towards all your costs x.
 
Poor little thing :( I would like to know what rescue it is just so I can make sure I haven't liked them on my FB page or anything. Well done for taking them in and giving them a chance of a proper happy life x

I am very wary of naming this 'rescue'. The woman who runs it worries me, she is so convinced that what they are doing is OK. I think I need to get some advice as I feel I need to name them publicly and let people know on FB what is happening as this is the media they use to fund raise etc. I need to know where I stand legally.

I am so upset tonight, these buns have been taken in to a rescue by people who clearly didn't know what horrors awaited them. Out of the 7 I have got, one saw her partner killed, one had an eye injury possibly pecked by a chicken ???, one has respiratory problems, one has teeth and as a result eye problems and was also pregnant, one was described by the vet as a 'stressy bun' who is frightened of everything and sends his own blood pressure up in a flash and another was also pregnant and underweight. Only the one little otter girl seems to have escaped unscathed, she is quiet but confident enough and has had a clean bill of health from the vet.

I am just so concerned that I have bitten off more than I can chew! I am frightened about letting any of them go but I cannot keep 14 extra rabbits on top of my ten. Currently I have 24 house buns with the 7 babies although they are all in the nest at the moment. I have a very good home for the two girls who were pregnant once they have been speyed, but that still leaves 22.

I need reassurances and to get a grip I think RU - I need to speak to people here who are re-homing and get my head around making sure they go to the best homes possible. I will say that I have not regretted taking them for one minute though!

Thanks for your support and offers of donations. I know money is tight for everyone and it is not my intention to come here and plead for money, I know if we could we would all be helping each other as much as possible financially - my husband says if we ever won the lottery the first thing he would do is have me sectioned - so i couldn't spend it all on animals :roll: Silly man, I'd buy some chocolate too :lol:
 
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It's best not to identify the rescue on here as it could be potentially libellous but I would chase up the RSPCA and explain your concerns about the rescue.

I hope all the bunnies can be nursed back into tip-top shape. Definitely have a word with some of the rescues on here to see how they go about homechecking etc so that you can be as confident as possible that they're going to good homes. You can also PM SOAD to have them listed in the RIN section on here once they're ready.
 
First of all, you have my sincere respect for all you have accomplished for these poor rabbits.

Secondly, as has been said elsewhere, the RSPCA are very limited in the powers they have to investigate and to close down, would it be worth phoning 101, the non-urgent Police number, and discussing the problem with them. You could say you're not prepared to name the rescue at this stage but want to discuss in general terms what your options are. Obviously say the RSPCA are aware but have not got back to you.

There's perhaps nothing they can do but they might have some advice. It's something to explore, anyway. But have your thoughts clearly ordered - perhaps on paper as bullet points - before you phone as doing a sort of mind dump when they answer might leave you sounding a bit confused and less likely to be taken notice of. Not that I'm suggesting you've done that here but when one is passionate about something, explaining a situation verbally can result in emotion overtaking the facts. And the police can only advise on stated facts.
 
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So sorry about the baby. Are you able to rehome the poorly one? If not what about contacting Snowy to see if she has space.
 
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