Plan B or What to Do When $#!@ Goes Pearshaped
Q: My rat has a baby stuck halfway out! What do I do???
A: Take a bit of lubricant like K-Y Jelly or Vaseline or even cooking oil
and gently ease the baby out with your thumb and forefinger. The mother
may try to nip you, so if you have someone else at home, try to get them
to gently
distract her or hold her head away from you. Generally it’s best
not to interfere with birthing as this can really stress the mother and
cause
bigger problems, but if the baby is genuinely stuck in the birth canal,
do intervene and try to gently dislodge him.
Q: My rat seems to be straining but no babies are coming out, what should
I do?
A: If the doe is pushing and straining for longer than an hour, call
your vet. She may need medical intervention such as a shot of oxytocin
to help
with contractions or even a caesarian section if the babies are stuck.
Labor can also stall, with a few babies coming out but more still inside.
At that
point, your vet will administer a shot of oxytocin to get contractions
going again or may also try an emergency c-section.
Q: My rat is bleeding a lot and seems listless either during or after
delivery. What should I do?
A: It is possible a placenta has detached and is causing haemorraging
in your rat. Get your rat to the vet ASAP!
Q: My
rat won’t nurse even though I’ve
left them with her overnight. What do I do?
A: If your mum won’t
nurse, you have two options: the first is to find another nursing
doe in your area to foster them and the second is to try
hand raising them. I strongly advise trying the first option if at
all possible as hand rearing newborn rats is extremely difficult at
best. The old adage
says that fortune favors the prepared mind, so it’s not a bad
idea to contact breeders in your area if at all possible before your
doe delivers
so you can set up a potential surrogate mother to nurse your litter
if something goes wrong. I find that if you have a back up plan in
place, you rarely need
it. It’s when you don’t that things go haywire. If you
do find that you have to hand raise the babies, you will need to lay
in a supply of kitten milk replacer (KMR and Esbilac are good brands)
and a small syringe with a pipette tip for the top. You will also want
a heating pad and a towel for swaddling. The babies can be nursed by
gently inserting the piptette tip into their mouths and allowing the
formula to slowly dribble into them. They may choke and bubble milk
from their noses and the process is a very messy one, so take it slowly!
Hopefully you will see a creamy milk band begin to stretch across their
bellies. You will also need to help the babies express their bowels
and bladders. Moisten a cotton ball with warm, not hot, water and gently
swab the rectum and genitals until urine or feces is expressed. Clean
the entire baby off with a new warm, damp cotton ball and place back
under light towelling. You will want to be sure the heating pad is
kept no higher than medium as the babies cannot get off the pad if
it is too warm. For safety, keep the babies on a folded towel placed
on the pad rather than directly on it. You will need to feed the newborns
every couple of hours for the first week, so prepare for sleep deprivation
as you would with a newborn human.