2 days after having babies, bleeding from vagina

[greychins]

My one female had babies two days ago. She was fine, and the babies have been doing fine, but tonight while looking in the cage I noticed some spots of red on the shavings. I didn't think too much of it, but then I noticed more spots, and when she layed down on her side and her vagina area was exposed, there was blood all over that area.

I called up the exotic vet in my area, woke up the doctor on call, who informed me that even if I brought her in tonight, with just her there and no staff, they would have to wait until morning to do much more than take her temperature and check her vital signs. So I'm not bringing her in tonight, because the vet said there would be almost no point, as I can tell that she's breathing and heart is beating... but I would bring her in the morning when they open if it looks like she definetly needs care.

I called the vet because I've never had this happen before and it seems unusual to me. The vet said that even though she had the babies 2 days ago, it could be leftover placenta/afterbirth that's just coming out or a little discharge, which could mean it's nothing.... or she said it could be infection.

I've never had this problem before. Likely, this chin will be seeing the vet first thing in the morning. Thoughts on this?

ETA: she is eating and drinking and pooing fine. She's acting like a regular chinchilla would, and the vet said that if she was acting lethargic or something, then it might be more signs for worry, but she thought that if she was acting alert and normal (which she is), that would be a good sign.

 

[starleomach]

I would put her on paper towels and monitor her. If it is a few drops. If it is more than that I would be on my way to get help. keep in mind all the streaching and bruising delivery can cause to the vaginal canal. it is quite tramatic and she may have just gotten irritated from moving around. I have seen this once or twice.

I would also give her a sugary treat just this once, like a nip of honey or something she may do well with a bit of sugar to bring up her blood sugar if she has lost a bit of blood. If you get concerened or her behavior changes go to the ER vet.

also put her in the smallest cage possible keep her from moving more than necessary

 

[greychins]

It's not a ton, it probably only is a few drops, I just worry because this isn't something I've seen before. I have her in a cage that's not much bigger than a run-hole now, and now she is just laying there, looking relaxed.

 

[kiltbunny]

Are the kits particularly big compared to the mom or is this her first litter? Maybe she had a little tearing and was cleaning up some and aggravated the tear.

 

[AZChins]

Is the blood bright red like it's very fresh? Darker blood is less of a concern to me...sometimes there's a little leakage the first few days. What I would be very concerned with right now is if she is bleeding heavily, as Kristy said, and also if she has retained anything. There is tearing and stretching and other issues that can cause a little more bleeding than normal, but there are also other problems including severe vaginal and uterine tears and infection. Infections can be really hard on new mamas. You could ask the vet if it would be a good idea to put her on a preventative dose of antibiotic. (Most of the time my vet wants me to do this if there is a problem with a mother chin. If a spay or c-section is needed, it's good to start on the antibiotics right away.)

I am hoping that your girl just has some normal discharge. You absolutely must keep a very close eye on her at this point. Feel her belly for any lumps and see if she stretches or acts funny at all.

So...now you are already terrified and I have made it worse! I'd say that more than half the time this type of vaginal bleeding in a new mama chin resolves itself and she's just fine. There's not much you can do tonight, but if you can make it in to see the vet tomorrow it may be a good idea to go. Of course, there is the possibility that by tomorrow she will close up and there will be no more bleeding or problems. Ahhh...the joys of breeding chinchillas!

 

[greychins]

It's bright red like it's fresh... I will take a picture. I wasn't sure if I should wipe it or let her deal with it, but I have her on paper towels now and she's been moving around and I haven't seen any more blood even though shes' been moving around.

I felt her belly and I don't feel any lumps. She's still acting normal, she's now in a sitting position with the kits nursing.

As I'm writing this, she has moved around the paper towels more, and there's no spots on the paper towels...

 

[AZChins]

That is very fresh! At two days after having babies mama chins usually don't have anything like that going on. If they have discharge, it's normally a bit brown. I just wonder if she has a uterine tear or rupture, it could be something really simple like a little vaginal tear that kept bleeding...but I don't know. She doesn't look like she has closed up at all.

I have attached a picture of a mama chin who gave birth yesterday (Thursday) at about 7 am. That puts the picture at her having had babies a day and a half ago. Notice that she is nearly completely closed and the discharge is pretty dry and looks a little brownish.

 

[greychins]

Oh ok. That's how I typically would expect a chin to look. I thought two days seemed a bit much for the afterbirth and discharge, as the kits were born Wednesday mid-day, but as this has never happened before to me I wasn't sure. The vet I called is the knowledgeable exotic vet that I have always used to help with my chins, and she has always known what she's talking about in the past, but I wasn't sure which is why I posted. Though, I did have to call the on-call doc, because it was after 10:30 pm when I called.... so I'm not sure I was talking to the actual vet that I always see, or if it was a different one (but it was one that works at the exotic animal clinic that I use).

So... what do you think I should do? Is this something that you think can wait til morning? Like I said, the blood isn't physically coming out now, the way it was when I first posted. I do have the money to take her in, that's not an issue, but if I could, I'd rather not pay $1000 now for something that will cost me $200 if I wait like 7 hours (when I called the vet said it would be very very expensive if they were to come to the office to see her now, and I can't say they're cheap to start with). Maybe I should check in the morning and see if she's closed up any more? and see how she's doing and go from there? I admit that I really hadn't looked at her vaginal area at all since the birth until I noticed some blood on the shavings.

ETA: and she is still eating and drinking and being a poo machine.

 

[AZChins]

I think it can wait until morning, but that's if everything stays the same as it is now. Can you check on her maybe every three hours or so? As long as she doesn't start bleeding a lot more and it just stays spotty...it should be alright. And, who knows, by the morning things may look much different.

When you do see the vet, ask about possibly getting some form of antibiotic to keep on hand and ask about giving it in these types of situations. If she's retaining something, it would be a good idea to start her on Baytril or a broad spectrum antibiotic just to keep her from developing an infection...or to keep any future mamas from having problems.

 

[greychins]

Sure, I can check at least every 3 hours. I'm going to be up all night working on a paper for my class, and I actually have a friend (who has a trailer! yay) staying with me for the night who is going with me in the morning to Ohio to pick up the remainder of a chin herd and supplies (these things always happen at these times, don't they?) so at some point I'll get him up and he can watch so I can sleep.

That makes sense. So I get the idea that I should take her in to be checked out pretty much regardless of how she's doing in the morning, right? And I will ask about getting the antibiotic to keep on hand... how long can antibiotics be stored?

 

[AZChins]

They always put an expiration date on any of the medications I keep...so I get new ones once we get past those dates. Usually I get at least 6 months before the Baytril expires. I don't use it very much so I rarely use it more than once or twice before I get a new bottle.

I don't know about taking her in. You need to see how she's doing in the morning. For your peace of mind you can take her in. Chances are that she's just taking her time closing up and she probably had the tiniest little laceration in her vagina or something...but it's been two days and it's bright red blood. So, you have every right to be nervous!

 

[greychins]

Oh ok. I do recall having an expiration date on the meds I've always received - I've had chins before on baytril, reglan, metacam in the past (not all at the same time, but we have dealt with our share of problems over the years), but it seems like it's been awhile since the last time we had a sick chin that needed vet attention and meds, so I guess I forgot about the expiration date.

Ok, well I will be watching her for most of the night, and we will see how she's doing in the morning. Unless she looks significantly different, I will most likely take her in, partially for my peace of mind, like you said. Better safe than sorry.

Well, I'm glad I'm not being overly paranoid. The vet sounded a bit miffed and it was obvious that I woke her up, and said something along the lines of "well I don't know how serious it is unless I was to see her and I can't tell from your description," like with a tone... (that makes me think I was talking to someone other than the vet I typically see, because she's just a sweetheart), but the way she said it made me think I could be completely overreacting to nothing, so in a way, I'm glad you think that I have a right to be nervous, so I know I'm not losing my mind over nothing.

I guess I forgot to answer someone else's question - this is her first litter. She had three babies, born 53, 54, and 44 grams. I don't want to pull her out and weigh her right now and stress her out more, but she is on the smaller/medium side of chin-size. If I had to guess, I'd say she was about 750 grams regularly, so she's not a huge chin, and she did have three good-sized babies, so I could see there possibly being some tearing. [Had to add pics of the cuties now that they were brought up]

 

[addictedtochins]

I would weigh the kits and make sure they are thriving and gaining.

 

[greychins]

They are thriving and gaining. I've been weighing them twice a day, in the morning and at night (I'm a little on edge because the last litter we had, the mother did not have any milk). I don't have the weights in front of me, but one kit has gained 3 grams in the last two days and I believe the other two have gained 4-5 grams each.

 

[greychins]

So just an update, she was fine most of the night, but in the morning hours she started bleeding again, and started looking even more open, like I could have almost stuck a pencil-width thing in, so I took her into the vet. They thought it could be an infection, they're going to look at her between their other clients. I'm not going to be around today to pick her up, so she's likely going to be boarded at the vet until Monday morning and whatever the problem is, they will be treating it.

They are going to call me before the do any x-rays or other procedures when they have some sort of thoughts on what it might be and what they would need to do to either know further or fix the problem.

I'll update once they call me.

 

[Dewdrop]

Wishing you and your chin all the best..

 

[AZChins]

I hope that she's alright... I was thinking about her all morning.

 

[starleomach]

I will keep my fingers crossed for her

 

[greychins]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. I took her to the vet first thing when they opened, because right around 7:45-8:00 she really started bleeding again. I had to leave her there because I went out of town (back now) and because since they had appts they said they'd squeeze her in between them...

They called, said they ran some bloodwork, she was highly anemic, they said her levels of red blood cells were either 15% or 15% lower than normal, I was driving and the phone was cutting out, whatever it was, they said it was really bad, and they said she had lost a lot of blood, apparently between when she started bleeding this morning around 8 and when they took a look at her.

They said she appeared to be dehydrated (though she drank like a half of a water bottle last night) and they thought that she might be bleeding into her uterus, but they said without exploratory surgery, we wouldn't know if that was actually the case. They gave me two options, spay her and incur emergency surgery fees (of course, because apparently they don't do surgeries on Saturdays) or wait until Monday and have them monitor her and if she didn't improve and still needed the surgery on Monday, they said it'd be $200 cheaper on Monday. But then they said that the monitoring fee per night is something like $50-75 because they have to take the chin to their house, which basically negated the $200 I would save by waiting. So I said spay her.

They called me after the surgery, said it went well and she was looking around, starting to wake up and acting normal. The vet said that she had a laceration on the inside of her uterus which was really bad, and they said that had we waited until Monday to monitor and then possibly operate, they likely would not have been able to fix the problem on Monday, especially with how much blood she had already lost. So I'd like to think I made the right decision.

When they called to tell me all of that, I was still 2.5 hours out of town, so I couldn't come get her today (I'm not sure they would have let me take her, but they did ask if I was back in town yet) and they said they will continue to monitor her, they will handfeed the babies so the babies don't unduly stress her while she's recovering, and they said they will call me tomorrow (I guess from the lady's home? cause they're closed on Sundays) and let me know how she's doing and whether or not she can be picked up Monday.

At least I got her into the vet right away and didn't wait more than just until the morning....

 

[Dewdrop]

Well thank goodness you got her in this morning then. Hoping for a speedy recovery for her!