thedustbath
01-20-2005, 11:09 AM
The other night I came home and looked into B'Elanna's cage. There was a small amount of blood in the shavings and I noticed that B'Elannas paws were bloodied. I was terrified, thinking she'd broken her paw and I didn't know how it would've happened. I went to pick her up and as she jumped away, I noticed a little grey ball of fur underneath her. She was such a welcome surprise and I was ecstatic, I couldn't believe my luck because I hadn't even expected B'Elanna to be pregnant, we took her away from her mate months ago, just shortly after her daughter Erin was born. The little kit was a female and weighed 45 grams, a pretty healthy weight, although not nearly the whopper of 68 grams that her older sister was at birth. Nontheless, she had a good amount of energy and was at a healthy birth weight and we were excited to have her with us. From the get go, however, I noticed something wasn't quite right. She didn't get up and start walking around the cage like kits tend to do, but rather she kept falling down, as though her back legs weren't strong enough. She didn't make very loud noises when she was hungry either, and one of her eyes had trouble opening. I guessed that she was a premie, but I still remained optimistic, all things considered. The next morning I went to check on her and her condition hadn't worsened, but it hadn't improved, either. She was still falling over, hardly able to move her back legs, almost as though she were paralyzed, but she was still moving around a good amount and seemed to have the energy at the very least.
I recieved a call later that day (she wasn't even 24 hours old) that she had passed away. My boyfriend had checked on her and noticed that she was spasming, so he picked her up and her spasms were so violent that he could easily feel them. He placed her back with her mom but shortly after, B'elanna (normally found right over the kit, licking her and being a terrific mother) moved away and simply sat there, several inches away from the body of her now-dead offspring. It's so sad, I could tell she was affected by the loss of her kit, so we put Erin (her other daughter) back in with her to give her company.
Since we didn't want to name the baby until we were sure she was healthy, she didn't get a name until today (the day after her death). We decided to name her Baby Bell. We've included a few pictures of Baby Bell so that you can see just how adorable she was. Her tail was almost all white, her fur on her head was so fluffy and cute. We were really hoping to see her grow up; her father was Christaphalo (same as Erin's), a male that took a first place at nationals that we no longer have.
I recieved a call later that day (she wasn't even 24 hours old) that she had passed away. My boyfriend had checked on her and noticed that she was spasming, so he picked her up and her spasms were so violent that he could easily feel them. He placed her back with her mom but shortly after, B'elanna (normally found right over the kit, licking her and being a terrific mother) moved away and simply sat there, several inches away from the body of her now-dead offspring. It's so sad, I could tell she was affected by the loss of her kit, so we put Erin (her other daughter) back in with her to give her company.
Since we didn't want to name the baby until we were sure she was healthy, she didn't get a name until today (the day after her death). We decided to name her Baby Bell. We've included a few pictures of Baby Bell so that you can see just how adorable she was. Her tail was almost all white, her fur on her head was so fluffy and cute. We were really hoping to see her grow up; her father was Christaphalo (same as Erin's), a male that took a first place at nationals that we no longer have.