Posted by Sherry on April 07, 2001 at 17:56:30:
In Reply to: Bleeding from cord posted by Gretchen on April 07, 2001 at 15:04:35:
The ending wasn't as tragic as yours but the story is familiar. In February we had a set of LaMancha twins. A doe and a buck. Like you I always kept string in my "birthing box" but only used it when I had to cut a cord. Both babies had their navels dipped and were in the process of getting up and moving around. I always have mine on a huge white towel so I can see anything that happens. I had noticed Lil' Brother butting at the doe in search of food but went on preparing bottles. Then I noticed the drops of bright red blood and tracked it down to the little girl. By then it was dripping pretty fast and often. There was a lot of blood. I grabbed some string to tie the cord off but the minute I put pressure on it the cord filled with blood and got very big...like intestines look on those cheap horror movies. It probably wasn't the right thing to do but I took the string off. Grasping for any idea, I grabbed the bottle of Iodine and the little bottle we use to dip the navels in and began dipping like crazy. I filled the bottle up and held it to the baby's belly removing it only to get a glimpse of what was going on. After a few minutes the bleeding stopped. The navel still looked swollen and bluish red but it wasn't bleeding anymore. It took a while for the cord to dry up but she's 8 weeks old now and you'd never know anything had been wrong with her. I watch all the babies now and try to keep them from butting each other and I tie ALL cords the minute I get the little rascals in the house if it isn't tied already. That's something I never want to do again. I hope you never have to do it again either. I hate losing the little ones.