>>Sorry to hear about your problem. Longtang had a similar problem on july 10 2003, you might want to page down and check out that discussion. None of us want our animals to suffer. It's a tough decision. Good Luck.
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>>DeMak
Demak is correct. I had a very similar situation. The thread is titled "grave condition in a female rat." The end result was my euthanizing the female and attempting to save the babies by a home c-section. Unfortunately, none of the babies were viable. I lost the mom and the babies. { However, they are in my freezer, so they have not completely gone to waste.}
The female had crusted blood in the birth canal for 48 hours before I did the home c-sect. So, in my case, 48 hours was too late. It sounds like you may also have gone over the 48 hour mark. If I had to guess, I would say that the fetuses are probably already dead. I would also say that any chances of your female delivering the babies are probably slim to none. I mean it is one thing if it was one still born in a normal delivery. However, to delivery a whole little of still born at this point is very unlikely.
I often think back to my female and think about whether I did the right thing. I still say I did the right thing. If I hadn't euthanized the female, she was most likely going to die of an infection. Chances of her clearing her uterus of the dead fetuses by her self was slim to nil. I mean the whole reason that the fetuses died was that she had arrest of labor/failure to progress, in the first place. So, if she wasn't able to deliver them when the babies were alive, what are the chances that she would have delivered them when the babies were dead?
The only thing that could have been done differently was probably an early c-section. However, the trouble you run into there is: how do you decide? If you perform c-sect too early, you may be performing it on a healthy female. But if you wait too long, then you will lose both mom and babies. It is a tough call and is more art than science. I guess the best thing next time is: at the first sign of trouble, do the c-sect. But who among us has really the intestinal fortitude to perform the c-sect at such an early stage? I believe that our human-nature is to drag our feet, hoping and rationalizing that maybe things will turn around. Yet, that kind of thinking leads most of these cases to the point where both mom and babies become beyond salvation--a Very tough call, indeed.
Wish you the best. Please let us know how things turn out.
sincerely.
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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.
