Fawn
If you are looking for information on Sunny the fawn that is in risk of being killed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources please see our post on Sunny.
A few days ago I was sitting on my back porch enjoying watching my goldfish and koi swim in my backyard pond. I heard the cry of a baby fawn coming from my next door neighbor’s house. I looked over and noticed it was traipsing through my neighbors backyard. I immediately jumped up and ran over there to see if my neighbor’s dogs were out so I could protect it if they were. Thank goodness they were inside so I didn’t have that to contend with as they have a very large Rhodesian Ridgeback.
I called my wife and told her of my finding and as I watched the young deer from a distance while she did a little research on the Internet. Everything she found said to leave the deer alone as the mother will some times leave the deer for a few hours and come back at dusk to retrieve it. I left the fawn alone and heard it throughout the night in the woods behind my house. I said to myself “I need to go check on the little guy”. I walked to the back of my yard and looked into the woods and noticed a large doe standing there looking back at me. I didn’t see the fawn but I heard it and knew it was close. I thought, wow! This is awesome, the mother had came to his rescue. I didn’t hear him cry any more that night so all was well…
The following day at about 2:00pm I heard him cry again a few times. I immediately called my wife and told her I needed to help this little guy as it must have just been a doe passing the by and not it’s mother. I got off the phone, ran to the computer and looked up the Kentucky Wildlife Association’s phone number and called them. I explained that this fawn had been abandoned for over 24 hours and asked what I should do. She asked me for my county and looked up the numbers of rehabilitators in my local area. I wrote down the numbers and took off out the door. I borrowed a baby bottle from my neighbor because I knew this little guy was going to need food fast.
I walked into the woods and looked and looked and looked. The fawn had quit crying so it made it a bit more difficult to locate. I told myself “I am not leaving these woods until I find this little guy and help him”. I knelt down and started scanning the woods and I noticed the white spots on his back. I got up and walked slowly over him as he lay lifeless and curled up into a ball. I slowly knelt down beside him and moved my hand toward his back and touched him trying to show that I was not wanting to harm him. He got spooked, jumped up ran about 20 feet and face planted and fell lifeless again to the ground. I walked over to him slowly again and did the same thing trying to reassure him. He jumped up once more ran about another 20 feet then slowly dropped to the ground as he was exhausted because he had been without food for so long. I realized his condition was extremely poor so I walked up to him and scooped him up. As I carried him back to the house his body was limp and all the the energy he could muster was to cry for his mother about 5 more times.
I walked up to the porch and told my daughter to fill the bottle with milk ( I know cows milk isn’t the best thing for him but it was all I had and he needed something with sugar and fat for energy ) and heat it to body temperature. I laid the fawn on a dog bed we had on our porch and it stayed there lifelessly. My daughter came out and brought me the bottle with milk and I tested it on my arm to make sure it wasn’t to hot, just as you would for a baby. I told my daughter to sit behind the deer and straddle it’s head between her knees and to gently raise it’s head straight up ( the poor deer didn’t even have the energy left to hold up it’s own head ). She did that and I gently opened the fawns mouth and put the bottle in. The fawn sat there lifelessly as it didn’t have the energy to even suckle.
I decided it was time for me to take the next step in feeding it. I squeezed the bottle a little bit so when it would occasionally swallow it would start getting milk. I did this a few times and noticed that when it would swallow it would swallow five or six times in a row then quit. I decided to try and work with that process so I would put a little bit of milk in it’s mouth and wait while watching it’s throat. As soon as the fawn would swallow I would start squeezing the bottle so the milk would run out of the bottle and into it’s mouth. This is when the process started working to feed him. He ate about 3-4 ounces of milk then it simply pulled it’s head away from us and laid down. I didn’t want to stress the deer as I felt it was done and needed to rest.
Fawn
I called the numbers I was given from the Kentucky Wildlife Association and found a local vet clinic that has a relationship with a local sanctuary. They told me that in the condition the deer was in it needed to be there asap. My wife, daughter and I immediately jumped up, got the truck ready and ran out the door to take the fawn to the clinic. We carried the fawn on the dog bed it was laying on as to disturb it as little as possible in the moving process. I put the deer on my wife’s lap then jumped in the drivers seat and took off. We started noticing he was looking around more on the way and becoming more alert and started moving his legs a little bit. I guess the milk we gave him had started to give him a bit more energy. We got to the veterinary clinic and turned the young fawn over to them as they have much better resources to help an animal in this condition than we could ever hope to have.
Note: Not all veterinary clinics have the capacity to take in wildlife. This clinic just happened to be one that works with one of the wildlife sanctuaries in our area. The sanctuary picked up the deer from the clinic where the deer will be rehabilited and released back into the wild. Call your local Wildlife Assocation to find rehabilitators in your area.
Another resource to find rehabilatators in your area is the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association
