Desperate for help!

This is my first time raising a whitetail fawn, and it's not going too well. My uncle found a newborn fawn on the side of the road getting attacked by vultures about 7 weeks ago. His mother was nowhere in sight, not uncommon since she just had a newborn fawn though. Although very scared, he was unharmed. He looked only about a day old. Long story short, I've owned and been caring for him since.



He lived in my room for the first three weeks, after that he was placed outside in my Miniature horse's pen. For the first 3 days he refused to eat. I had to syringe feed him small amounts of colostrum. On the third day though, I force fed him with a bottle by opening his mouth with my thumb and restraining him. After a couple days of being force fed, he still needed his mouth to be forced open, but didn't need to be restrained. Eventually he got the hang of it and needed no assistance. He was on the colostrum for about a week or two, after we ran out we switched him over to the regular stuff. It's a milk formula used for multiple species, including fawns.



Now he's 7 weeks old, and I'm worried about him. His eyes are still blue, but he is nowhere near blind. My main worry is that he is losing his hair, and what hair he has comes off easily. His entire back is almost bald, his hind legs are beginning to bald, and his neck is balding. 4 or 5 weeks ago I put a dog collar with a bell on it loosely on his neck, and the slight rubbing of the collar completely removed the fur on the back of his neck. His feces appears very healthy. No visible worms, and it's in pellets. He is quite active. From what I can tell, he looks healthy, but since I have no experience raising a fawn I don't know if he is putting on enough weight. His main diet is his milk. I feed him apples, leaves, etc. when I can, but we have no grass for him to graze on. He also refuses to eat the coastal hay that my Miniature Horse eats.



Since he's wild born and I have no idea how healthy his mother was, I'm quite worried about him. So my questions are- Why are his eyes blue? Why is he losing his hair? In case he has internal worms, am I able to give him a very small dose of horse dewormer? Why won't he eat any hay?



Also, I call him a he, but I don't have any clue of his gender. Thank you for any help or advice!

dtala said:

feed him regular store bought "red cap" milk, whole vitamin D milk like you drink. Full bottle(10 oz) four times a day. He needs fresh dirt available. No horse wormer.



He's losing hair because of vitamin deficiency. Fix his food prob and hair will regrow. Had one just like that couple three years ago on a rescue fawn.



Go very slow on new foods, esp stuff like apples. He will eat apples and then cannot digest them, stomach full of undigested apple=dead fawn.



He dosen't need coastal hay, he ain't a horse.



you'll have to figger the gender part out yerself....

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Thank you for replying





Whole dairy milk? I thought dairy milk isn't healthy for baby animals?? Should he stay on that until he's ready to be weaned? I've been feeding him 9oz of the multi-species milk formula every 8 hours; It's what the formula said to do for fawns.



He has dirt available in his pen, but I doubt it's clean. Should I full up a small container with dirt? The only dirt we have that is clean is potting soil and store-bought Texas dirt.



As for the hay, I researched it and many sites said that deer can eat livestock hay and usually do. And especially since he has no access to grass, I figured he'd at least be interested in my horse's hay.

Hershey's Huntin Haven said:

If it were me I would mix the whole milk with what you are feeding now slowly and increase the ratio of mlk to formula. I'm mixing whole milk wth my formula now and have the best looking fawns and have less problems. No to the potting soil. They need dirt from the area the are going to be raised in. As it grows slowly increase the oz per feeding. then slowly faze out the middle bottle while increasing the morning and night bottle. I also let mine have access to calf manna. It also needs access to fresh water. Just what works for me.

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Whole milk as in whole dairy milk, yes? The user above said to feed him four times, but you're saying three times? He does have access to water, also.

Hershey's Huntin Haven said:

Research mites. I had a fawn last year that lost hair on its ears first then its neck. Turned out to be mites.

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I thought about external parasites, but I have no idea how to treat them on a fawn.

Wild Rivers Whitetails said:

You should be able to find some lamb milk replacer at a feed store. Usually it is in a powder form. They also like goats milk. Being in Texas there are many deer breeders around that could help you out. Check out the member listing of the Texas Deer Association to find someone near you or the North American deer farmers association for farmers in Texas.

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I saw something about kid milk not being as good as lamb milk. He is on milk replacer formula, but it's for multiple species. It listed fawns, so I figured it was good.

dtala said:

again, whole vitamin D milk from the grocery store, same an you drink. 1/10 the problems associated with any and all milk replacers.

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I looked it up and I see what you mean now. Though, that is not what I drink. Anyways, is he suppose to only drink that from now on, or should I put a few ounces of that into his formula?

dtala said:

straight milk from now on.....

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I looked at his formula he has, and it has vitamin A, D, and C in it. I'm sorry if I'm being a pain, but I have never heard of anybody ever feeding any type of baby animal, besides calf, cow's milk. In fact, I've always heard that it will sicken it.

Four Seasons Whitetails said:

You should get him on some good hay! Someone in your area will have hay of decent stuff! Tractor Supply store may have alfalfa chunks that comes in a bag. You can bust them up small and he will eat them. As far as dirt...Just go out in the yard somewhere and dig down a shovel full and give him the dirt thats domw there 4 o 5 inches!

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He won't be interested in the coastal hay? How much alfalfa should he get per day? As for the dirt, that's a real issue. The main reason why grass refuses to grow in our backyard is because 70% of the ground is rocks.

Four Seasons Whitetails said:

Yes Red Cap milk will be fine for him. If you want tomix it then put 1 cup of powder in with 1 gallon of store bought Red Cap milk.

Give him the bestdirt you can and the futher down the better. Alfalfa...Free choice...Get it up off the ground and he will eat what he needs!

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Alright, thank you!

dtala said:

you're being a pain, but thats ok. For years I heard red cap will KILL fawns, but it simply isn't so. In fact it is 180 degrees wrong.



search on this site "red cap milk" and you will see that many, many deer farmers feed their fawns straight red cap milk with far less trouble than any milk replacer.



Your fawn obviously has problems and I would try to remove as many problem causing things as possible.

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Sorry, but I'm a very worried owner when it comes to my animals I'll ask a few last questions, then I'll be out of your hair. Should I slowly introduce him to the red cap milk? And with the red cap, how much should I give him per feeding and how many times do I feed him per day? Do I continue feeding him the same amount of red cap milk per feeding and as often per day as I should now until he's 12 weeks and ready to be weaned?



Lastly, once he's weaned, how much feed and what feed should I give him? Again sorry for all the questions, but I want to make sure he gets and stays healthy.

Remi said:

If I am not mistaken, Panacur. Is widely used for goats, cows, horses . And safe for deer.you can use Panacur one year and another wormer the next. Check the label, or vet to see how early in life you can use it.

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Thank you very much! Will it list how young a fawn can be dewormed?

dtala said:

take a couple of days to transition from what you are feeding to red cap, any quick change is near always bad. 8-12 oz per feeding three times a day. If he wants more increase oz.



have some DEER feed free choice available for him.

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Is he suppose to have the 8-12 oz three times a day until he's weaned? I also couldn't find any feed made for deer, other than deer corn.