# Accidental litter, one of the babies died, swollen and full of bubbles???



## rudyauction509 (Sep 26, 2013)

One of my rats gave birth this morning around 1am, and about 15 minutes ago I noticed her desprately licking a baby, so I took a look and found that it was gasping for air. It died 15 minutes later. It was greyish in color compared to the others, swollen and appears to have lots of air bubbles under its skin around the stomach. Can anyone tell me what this is?? Ther are no visible injuries, and all of the others appear fine. 

I don't know who the father is, I know she became pregnant when the separator between the 2 halves of my rat pen broke in the middle of the night letting the males in with the females until morning when I noticed and fixed it. 

I don't have a camera capable of taking close up shots, so pics aren't really an option.


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## threelittleratties (May 7, 2013)

Could it be megacolon? Never had baby rats but sounds to me like it probably is. Keep extra watch on the babies and if your squemish take any babies that look like they are dying/dead take them out as Mom may eat them! Hopefully other babies are healthy. *if you think they're dying maybe hold them to keep them warm just incase they arnt


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## Penelepe (Jan 12, 2014)

It sounds like a "walrus" baby or more accurately a baby with severe edema and water retension .. I have only seen pictures of such a baby on a dog website and one of a baby. In dogs the baby often gets so swollen with water it has to be removed by c-section. And they are dead when born if I remember corectly. 

Im not really sure. But its a possibility. Like above poster said it can also be mega colon

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## Penelepe (Jan 12, 2014)

I read again and saw that the baby died later on. So I think it may not be a walrus baby. Maybe he retained water after birth and died as a result. 

A shot in the dark. Sorry I cant be of anymore help

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