This vet mentions fetal gigantism because of a cow that was way overdue and had a c-section to deliver a 212 lb. calf instead of her normally 100 lb.'er. Holy Nestbox! I'll stick to my Hollands! He stated it is caused by a gene from each parent. Normally each sex contributes a gene which determines the length of gestation or how long the fetus develops in the uterus. Most genes specify the same period of time. In some cases one gene calls for a longer term and is a dominate gene over the normal gestation period gene. When this happens, the fetus grows for a longer period of time. This makes sense except that does delivering a huge kit aren't usually much over their due date or we've attributed a late delivery to the doe having trouble trying to deliver such a big kit. So who knows, but I thought it was interesting. Always is when we read something that we can relate or attribute to our rabbits. Stay tuned to hear of things to do with umbilical cords, pretty interesting stuff. Anyone else with gigantism experiences or thoughts on it?
I just finished reading "While You're Here, Doc" by Bradford B. Brown, a rural Maine large animal veterinarian working in the 1950's and 1960's. He worked with horses, cows, goats, sheep and one abcessed tooth irate monkey. There were a couple of things gleaned from his entertaining stories of farm calls that could relate to rabbits. One was a genetic abnormality known as fetal gigantism. It made me wonder if that is the cause of some does delivering just one huge kit. I'd previously chalked it up to does that hadn't been bred or conceived for some time. That the lack of hormone activity finally kicked in and they'd conceive just a single kit and because it was "alone", it took more nourishment and grew to accomodate the extra space it wouldn't have if it had littermates in there. Kind of like the goldfish in a bowl vs. the goldfish in a pond theory. When the doe finally did have something, it would be one huge kit and then subsequent litters would be fine.
This vet mentions fetal gigantism because of a cow that was way overdue and had a c-section to deliver a 212 lb. calf instead of her normally 100 lb.'er. Holy Nestbox! I'll stick to my Hollands! He stated it is caused by a gene from each parent. Normally each sex contributes a gene which determines the length of gestation or how long the fetus develops in the uterus. Most genes specify the same period of time. In some cases one gene calls for a longer term and is a dominate gene over the normal gestation period gene. When this happens, the fetus grows for a longer period of time. This makes sense except that does delivering a huge kit aren't usually much over their due date or we've attributed a late delivery to the doe having trouble trying to deliver such a big kit. So who knows, but I thought it was interesting. Always is when we read something that we can relate or attribute to our rabbits. Stay tuned to hear of things to do with umbilical cords, pretty interesting stuff. Anyone else with gigantism experiences or thoughts on it?
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AuthorHoping to share the rabbitry happenings & thoughts. Also HINTS that I hope will help you and your rabbits.
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