They came back to life!

[bargain]

Monday and Tuesday we had 5 mother rabbits having babies....It's been cold, so hubby and I have been busy monitoring the mommies and helping when needed with more hay and more waterers, etc.

Well yesterday, after the thirds sets of waterers for the bunnies, I checked in on Corella's pen.as she had not given birth yet......And found 2 very cold immobile, dead Rex babies..... Never one to give up.....I ran to the house,,,,grabbed soft cloths and washclothes, put the clothes down on the top of wood stove to heat. Put soft cloths around the bunnies and held them close to the top of the stove, continued switching warm cloths for about 20 minutes..and rotating them from left to right hand so they wouldn't get too hot....My hands got a nice stove burn but it was worth it because in about 15 minutes I Thought I saw a leg twitch about then and then I thought, no it's my imagination, my hope,,,,,I was crying and hoping and praying all the way through the process.

BYC friends dropped by ....Pumpkin Pup and Lockedhearts and they can vouch for the next part of the story...... I saw them talking to hubby through the storm door.....I hadn't even shut the main door when I came in the house.and screamed out the door....Y'all come here if you want to see a miracle.... The door is right by the stove so I didn't lose any heat or time warming the babies.

They were able to see the babies slowly moving....And I kept turning the bunnies over and over during the warming process and then all of the sudden we three heard the two little bunnies cry out for their mommie.....It was a plaintive and loud and healthy cry.....These were little bunnies that were all of 2 hours old at the most and being warmed over the stove for 30 minutes....

I cannot tell you the gratitiude I felt when I heard those cries.......

This was yesterdays news as a reporter would say, but I'm very grateful that today those two little precious bunnies are alive and well...........I shall need some wonderful names for them.....

Just call me very grateful and amazed. and blessed ...it was truly a time in my life I shall never never forget......

 

[redhen]

OOh, how neat! I hope they make it!!

 

[wildorchid053]

i think grace and blessed are great names for those two bunnies

 

[lockedhearts]

I think Nancy praying may have had a hand in it too! It was a miracle to see those little babies start squirming and squealing!

 

[BarbK]

Gotta love the lazarus babies. I had a litter like that 4 days ago.

 

[dntd]

The loss of bunny kits are way too high for my likings in cold weather. I seperated my male during the winter that way we wouldn't have a high death rate, 13 babies for my mini lop was the norm but in the winter it would drop to 4! I let her have a good 3 years of breeding now she's retired and is 6 years old!

 

[Manok-Tao]

Woodstove and Twitch

Great job, hope they make it to spring

 

[Bunnylady]

Oh, well done!

Longtime breeders call 'em "Lazarus babies." I've been there a bunch of times, and the wonder of it never gets old. It's amazing how much chilling a newborn bunny can stand. When they get a few days older, they become much less tolerant of chilling. It reminds me of what I heard a doctor once say about hypothermia, "they aren't dead, until they're warm and dead." Sometimes, they surprise you!

The warming part can get tricky. If you warm them up too quickly, they can start to revive, then crash and die on you

(I've had that happen a few times, too!) I have a - um - well-endowed friend who has put them in her bra

(I usually just hold them against my stomach.)

Congratulations!

 

[The Chicken People]

Congrats...and you know what they say about the power of prayer....Awesome!

 

[cmjust0]

Over Christmas, my dad told us the story of the dog that froze to death -- twice.

They were just pups, and this one was the runt. He went to check on everyone and the runt had been kicked out and was laying off by herself.. He picked her up and she was stiff as a board. Said her eyes were clouded over and everything. Stone cold dead. He picked her up and put her in his workshop to bury later.. If I'm not mistaken, the workshop was heated with a coal stove or something like that..

Anyway, he went out the next day, opened the door, and there she sat looking at him. He couldn't believe it, but he took her back to mama and she fought her way in and nursed.

He told my step-grandfather (they live on the same property) about what had happened, and my step-grandfather said "I did the same thing a few days ago." Same pup. Dead.. Frozen to death. Set her inside to bury, and she came back to life.

Well, unfortunately, this entire litter of pups ended up coming down with Parvo later on (I know, I know...sad and easily preventable...but this was 25+ years ago) and most of them died. I was really attached to this particular pup, though...the 'dead' one...so my family softened up and took her to the vet. They ran IVs and all kinds of good stuff, and she ended up beating Parvo.

Dang ol' dog ended up living a long, long time.. Into her teens, at least.

Ya just never know, ya know?