Labour Issue

[bhawk 64]

Hey all, this year I only planned on having one litter. Recently got my male vasectomised (the vets gave me his spermata cords in a vial as a guarantee) but I digress, so ferret was put to the job as usual and her pregnancy was nothing unusual. However, last night she went into labour. We noticed after half hour a kit was still only partially out and there was no movement or progress, so rang the vets and took her in our of hours. The vet had to physically pull the dead kit out as it was causing problems for her. She then got injected with oxytocin to help her labour asking and she had two more still born kits and one live one. The kit that was stuck was 3 times larger than any newborn kit I've ever seen so no wonder it was stuck. The vet charged me 120 which I'm fine with. So has anyone else come across extra large kits getting stuck in labour?

I've bred ferrets all my life and never had this issue. Luckily with vasectomised hob I should never have this issue again.

[Jamie m 668]

Had it last year hob three times the size all other kits dead, three Jills to : ( all normal size but dead ,

[johnrthrfrd 223]

Just had a litter of 6 one was on the large side and born dead.

[maxwell 88]

Was it one of your micro jills, did you breed of her last year

[hideandshoot 13]

Not really relevant, but one of my ewes had dead triplet lambs this spring. The first one was massive, which the vet managed to eventually pull out backwards, the other two were normal size. Unfortunately all dead. It appears the ewe couldn't part with the larger first lamb and they subsequently all died due to being blocked in for too long. Maybe the same thing happened with your litter. I suppose it could be due to being overfed as the extra size of the first one had to ultimately come from the mothers diet.

[bhawk 64]

maxwell, the mother is half micro bred to full micro. both mother and the kit are doing well although we had to remove a bit more of the placenta that was still in her an poking out a tiny bit.

Its the first time ive ever seen this.
Hideandshoot it does sound very similar. maybe they both have the same cause, whatever it is.

Like i say, the ferrets are all fine, im impressed with my vets and with a vasec hob i will no longer be having any litters for a long time.

im also impressed that despite disturbing her throughout labour going to the vets and being poked, prodded and injected she has not killed her remaining kit and is doing a great job.