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Bottle fawn with broken leg

redwood_river_whitetails

redwood_river_whitetails

Joined Apr 2009
524 Posts | 0+
Russell, MN
Found one of my bottle fawns with a broken back leg this morning. It is broke below the hock....no bone sticking out.



Wondering what everyone thought I should do.



Was thinking of wrapping with cotton and some vet wrap to stabilize and putting her in a smaller pen to let heal. Or should I just let alone? It is somewhat swollen, but not too bad.



She drank her bottle fine this morning and seemed otherwise ok. She is the wildest bottle fawn I have, thus the reason I was thinking of stabilizing it so that it had a chance to heal in the correct position.
 
Susan, in order to properly set a bone, you must isolate one joint above and below the break. So here, you would have to splint from below the ankle to above the hock. This is tricky because you have to make sure the foot is in the correct, flexed position so that the tendon does not become contracted, and you have to be sure that you don't have any pressure points inside the bandage that limit any circulation. It is do-able, just keep these things in mind. I have made one out of PVC, 45's and pipe, cut in half length-wise, and then padded well with cotton all the way around the leg. This way, you aren't in a full cast, it is like a half cast, so the leg can still grow without being squeezed. Change it every 5-7 days to check for sores and to adjust for growth.
 
Very good advice Robbie, I might have to use it someday if i get a real bad case, but so far in my 4 years I have had 2 fawns and one adult with broken legs, they would always swell a little but would heal in a couple months on their own. All 3 of them are still here and you would never be able to pick them out, they all made full recoveries. Susan, I dont mean to say that to make you not want to take Robbies advice, I only wanted you to know that if you are unable to make the splint, the deer still has a good chance of making a full recovery, as long as its not a terrible break. Good luck with her.
 
I gave .3 cc of xylazine tonight and it put her down.....I gave a fawn .5 cc last year and it took her 8 hours to come out of it.



We took 1 1/4" pipe and Randy melted and formed it to fit higher up on her leg (slit the pipe in half) and we made it long enough to cover her hoof. Wrapped her leg first with cotton wrap to absorb any moisture and then put the pipe on. Wrapped her leg with vet wrap and then black taped the bottom so that it couldn't get wet. I gave her some LA 300, Vitamin AED and Vitamin B complex and waited to reverse her.



She came out of it really good...was standing tonight and drank her whole bottle. We set up a small pen in the fawn pen on the grass in a corner and she seems to be very alert and healthy....except for the leg. Not much swelling at all, but it gave you the willies seeing it flop around.



We'll see how our "operation" worked. I think it's hopeful though.
 
Sounds good, Susan. Can you post a picture of your handy work? I'd love to see how the splint turned out. You might give her a little bit of banamine for a few days, just to help with inflamation and discomfort. May not be necessary, but probably wouldn't hurt.
 
Yes, forgot....I did give some banamine for the swelling. I will try to get a picture here this weekend. She seemed comfortable this morning. Only time will tell though.
 
Attempt #1 did not work.



Here are pictures of attempt #2. Seems to be alot better.



Once again, she is up and looking good except the broken leg.



Randy is very good at thinking stuff up.



We used 1" irrigation pipe (we are landscapers!) and cut it in half. He then trimmed it up and riveted the 2 pieces together to make a hinged splint. There is one on the other side of the leg too. We wrapped with cotton wrap first, then put splint on and wrapped with vet wrap and taped ends up with waterproof tape.



The break is just below the hock about an inch or so down from the tape that you see in the picture.
 

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If you can check for a pedial/pedal pulse at the bottom near the hoof, I would just to make sure the circulation is good. It is hard to tell but the top tape looks like it MIGHT be tight, if the fawn stands on it??? Just my thoughts....

You are doing an Awesome job!!!
 
I know it looks tight....thought the same thing myself. But it's a illusion with the type of tape. She still looks good tonight....we'll see.
 
She is doing very well. We cut off bandages this morning and rewrapped again. The leg seems to be healing really good. She is drinking her bottle everyday and eating pellets. I think the splints that Randy made are the ticket! We will keeping them in case we ever need them again!



How long does everyone think that we should keep the splints on? I don't have a clue as to how long it takes for a bone on deer to heal.
 
Susan

Same thing happened here. Same break just like yours. My vet made me a splint just about like yours, only ours had a loop the leg went thru and it looked almost like a fake leg with a built in crutch. I took my fawns off at 3 weeks and is doing great.

Eric
 
redwood_river_whitetails said:
Attempt #1 did not work.



Here are pictures of attempt #2. Seems to be alot better.



Once again, she is up and looking good except the broken leg.



Randy is very good at thinking stuff up.



We used 1" irrigation pipe (we are landscapers!) and cut it in half. He then trimmed it up and riveted the 2 pieces together to make a hinged splint. There is one on the other side of the leg too. We wrapped with cotton wrap first, then put splint on and wrapped with vet wrap and taped ends up with waterproof tape.



The break is just below the hock about an inch or so down from the tape that you see in the picture.
Click to expand...



Susan just a thought but if the splint is hinged then it can move therefor the joint above the fracture is not stabilized and won't heal properly. Basically the whole thing needs to be immobile like it would be with a cast.
 
We redid the splint again this morning since it was cool and the leg looks really good. The bone looks healed....there is a slight bump where the break was but overall very pleased with it. No swelling anywhere and only slight rub spots from the splint.....we padded better this time where the rubs were. The hinged splint seems to be working....I guess we'll see if we did the right thing by letting her be able to bend her hock to be able to lay down more comfortably.



I think we'll leave it on until next Sunday or so and let her go in the big pen with the rest of the bottlefeds.
 
we have had 5 deer with broken legs(4 were fawns) we didnt touch them..deer are very good healers,one buck fawn broke the same back leg TWICE!Once the hip,and once below the hock, and we didnt touch it,you would never know it was broken..unless the bone is showing,they should heal themselves...in fly season,an open break should be sewn shut...
 

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