Female with milk issues?

[greychins]

OK, so I have a female here who has never had issues with milk coming in. Her kits have always been raised entirely by her with no supplementing or handfeeding.

Well, about a week ago, she had one kit. The first few days, the kit was gaining about two grams per day, so no problem there. After the first 3-4 days, the baby's weight has held steady (at 63 grams, so she's not tiny and starving). A day she may go up to 64, the next day back to 62, then back to 63...

I see her under mom, so she is nursing, but I was just curious if anyone has seen something like this before? She's definitely had no problems with milk before, but now I'm debating whether it's possible that her milk came in, but not much of it, or whether something else is going on.

The female is 5 years old, has handled larger litters than 1 kit before, and there has been no interruption in food/water.

Thoughts?

 

[Riven]

If they babies belly is full, I wouldn't worry about it, it's not uncommon for kits to lose some or just maintain for a bit while adjusting to "outside life". I'd just keep an eye on her.

 

[Vyxxin]

Furthermore (along with just watching and waiting) I'd consider failure to thrive before milk issues. With a proven nurser, with no previous issues, seems a more likely scenario. If she continues to decline and you wind up handfeeding...you'll find out for certain. The kit will continue to decline even with handfeeding IF it's failure to thrive. If it's not, with handfeeding she will thrive and this would indicate a milk issue. For now though, watch and wait. It's not serious yet.

 

[greychins]

Thanks, I will watch her and see how she does.

 

[ArmyWife]

Furthermore (along with just watching and waiting) I'd consider failure to thrive before milk issues. With a proven nurser, with no previous issues, seems a more likely scenario. If she continues to decline and you wind up handfeeding...you'll find out for certain. The kit will continue to decline even with handfeeding IF it's failure to thrive. If it's not, with handfeeding she will thrive and this would indicate a milk issue. For now though, watch and wait. It's not serious yet.

Is there anyway to help a kit to survive who has failure to thrive? I'm worried that one of my kits have it.

 

[greychins]

Thought of something else as well. I've had chins that plateau for a few days, go up, plateau, go up, plateau, and so on so forth. But within every week they've always gained a reasonable number of grams. But let's say this girl hangs around 63 grams like literally plateaus there for more than a few days... at what point would you step in?

So far, for me, I've had cases where it's clear something's wrong and the kits need handfed or the kits are losing weight and needing handfed, or mom dies, etc etc....and I have no problem stepping in and handfeeding. My question is just -- if the chin is maintaining weight, it is eating, not enough to gain, but is eating -- so I'm just not sure at what point you'd want to supplement/handfeed. I can start if needed, I just was wondering others' viewpoints on how long they would wait while the chin plateaus. I haven't weighed her yet today (I weigh at night) but she was 63 grams last night.

I did put in the dry mix for mom & baby last night (usually I do it from the beginning but I dunno what I was thinking lately). Maybe that will help.