Message Number: YG5078 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Santinix
Date: 2001-07-03 07:15:00 UTC
Subject: Kit Panic - What just happened?

I ought to warn everyone that, since my jill had kits, I've become a
panicker on health issues. Please tell me when I'm being dumb.
I took the jill and her ten-week-old kits and put them in a new cage in the
front garden today, so they could see around them and get used to traffic
sounds. Each in turn spent a little time on my lap as I worked in the house,
so they each got their share of attention. One, who has always been prone to
crying, lay quiet for a few minutes then had a major fit! Convulsions,
shrieking, wetting and crapping himself, spraying fom his anal glands,
biting my hand and drawing blood. Even after it was over and I had given him
time to calm down, he just lay as if paralysed with shock. He didn't even
lick the blood from his lips and teeth (and I swear there was more blood
there than my tiny bite produced). When I lifted him to put him back with
the others, he cried as if had hurt him. His heart was racing.
All my kits have been extensively handled and cuddled since birth. They all
give kisses and demand them in return. This little one is no exception. I
have never hurt or abused them - never stepped on one by accident, don't
even nose-flick them for biting, just try a firm NO. If this was fear, it
was the first time he's ever shown it.
Could this be a sign of some illness?