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Doe with broken neck??

D

Derek

Joined Aug 2012
73 Posts | 0+
Burnt River, ON
Hi there, I just joined the forum today.....although I've been reading things on it every day for the past few months....some of which have saved the butts of my fawns as well as my own. We started our whitetail deer farm in April, in the huge town of minden Ontario, Canada and are having a blast! We have 5 does and 2 breeder bucks and are bottle feeding 6 fawns as we speak. How adorable are they?! Lol. We have already successfully dealt with the usual loose stools, trouble taking the bottle, sucking eachother, constipation etc....with the help of both the farm owner who got us started and lots of amazing information in these forums. So now you have the run down of our startup.....now to the current pressing issue. One of our 9 week old doe fawns was spooked by a raccoon the other night and ran head on into a tree :(. She has no use of her front legs and has a large crook in her neck. We currently have her in my shop and turn her frequently as well as stand her up in a cradle that we made for her. She is eating and drinking well and is also going to the bathroom on her own. We have given 2 shots of dex, 24 hrs apart....but I feel my vet gave too small of a dose...0.1 ml?? We love her to death and don't want to give up on her, but also don't want her suffering, if she is in pain. I should mention that she does seem happy and alert and licks our face etc, while we feed and exercise her legs. ANY advice from some of the knowledgeable farmers on this site would be greatly appreciated!! Sorry for the long winded-ness.....but I thought I'd sort of introduce myself and situation, before posting the problem/question. Thanks!
 
Thanks for the advice! I should have mentioned that we did have a chiropractor out, who claimed to re set our little girls neck. I don't think she did anything....but regardless it did absolutely nothing. It's do hard where we are to get the drugs we need. We paid our money when we started up to get a vet out to see our farm etc etc, do that we could access drugs when needed and when we have needed a few it's like begging to get them. I wish I knew how to post pics, so I could show a few of her neck etc



Thanks again!
 
Thanks. I will definitely try to get some banamine, as it seems like it is a good all around drug throughout the forum. Is this a vet prescribed medication? Every time i need something from the vet where i live, they say that they need to come see the animal first....before they will give me anything! By the way....this results in me owing them over 200 dollars. I needed penicillin for one fawn who had an abscess on his leg and i ended up getting it at a local feed store, to avoid the aggravation at my vets
 
Sounds like you have a pain in the a$$ vet.. I think i would move on to the next vet. Might be farther away but might be much better. You can get alot of what you need at the farm store and far as meds. Dont want to be a bummer here but you have to think about the future of the fawn. Broken neck she might not ever be right. We had one that had the same thing a few years back and we ended up over a grand deep with the vet and still had to put her down. Sucks but a fact of farming. Good luck with her!!!!!!
 
Derek - I think Mike is right...you might have to find a vet that is more understanding of your stuation. We can't spend $200 for a vet to come out and give a deer a few cents to a couple dollars worth of antibiotic which is administered through a dollar syringe...and do this every time a deer has or might have an infection or a bug!



The vet that I started with became more and more difficult in allowing me to take meds home, and then began to charge exorbitant prices($5.75 for 1cc of 100mg/ml of Xylazine).



I think it would help alot if your vet realized that it was more of the ''norm'' within the deer industry for vets to provide and allow us to take certain meds home w/o them(the vet) having to come out and see the deer first every time one shows sick, hence having to charge us a ''trip fee'', etc.



Wish you the best Derik in finding a more understanding/cooperative vet, or educating the one you have to the ''norm'', and having them come to a realization that making ''something'' off you is better than ''nothing at all''!!
 
Hi Derek,



I applaud you and your efforts on the fawn, but her condition and lack of use in her legs would concern me, plus neededing to be manually turned and moved. If it was at my farm, I would do what's best for the fawn, and her quality(or lack there of) life. Sorry.
 
Derek, if that fawn is going to recover, you have to get the swelling in her spine reduced. Dex is the best drug to do that and the dose you gave her is, in my opinion, too small to do anything. If she were on my farm, I would give several cc's on consecutive days. I am not sure that you should mix Dex with Banamine, check with your Vet or maybe someone on the forum can answer that. We have saved a fawn using that dose but the extent of the damage is different on each animal. We have also tried and failed to get deer up after that type of injury. Best of luck.
 
Hi everyone! This forum is amazing....thanks so much to everyone for their time and responses. I totally agree that we need to search for a different vet, which we have already made steps to do. Here's where we are at: although we do need to turn her etc to ensure that she changes position, she is happy as a clam when in her cradle that we made for her. She is VERY alert and eating like a horse. This morning she had 400ml of our Grober whitetail milk replacer, about 50 small poplar leaves, as well as a small amount of dry food. She moves her back legs intermittently, but not her front ones at all. When I pinch between her front hooves, she does pull up....but I think she's pulling from her shoulders....not using her legs persay. I went to vet this morning and they sold me a bottle of 2mg dexamethasone, but refused to sell me any banamine, saying that it causes abscesses. This despite the fact that I told them that deer farmers with many combined years of experience seem to use it regularly on their animals. He offered annafin? instead, but I said not to bother. I just gave her 1.2cc of dex and hopefully this higher dosage will show us some improvement. I agree that we need to think of her quality of life....my thinking right now is that if she takes a turn for the worse....ie; stops eating well etc, we will take that as a sign of her not wanting to continue. I hope that seems right and that we are going the right thing. She is definitely happy and perky for the time being though. She is getting tons of love and spoiled to death! I am posting a pic of her on my profile thing to the side



Thanks again to all. I hope to someday be on here giving advice to others who need it!



Derek
 
I have to agree with Todd because of a similar situation this winter on a buck fawn that hit the fence. He had the crook in the neck as you describe. 5 months later, the buck fawn that hit the fence, was growing velvet, perky...eating and looking great was finally put down because he wasn't getting the use of his legs back much to the relief of myself and everybody that knew about the buck fawn. He could move his legs...but they would not carry or support his weight. We did the sling, the dex and everything else mentioned and it didn't work. He laid on his side all day every day and Randy and I got in many fights about doing the right thing. Sorry to give you advice that is something you don't want to hear...but been there and done that.
 
You are doing all of the correct things so far. I would increase the dex dosage to .5cc In addition, I would get some shock effect probiotics. For some reason, non-ambulatory deer get the benefit of the probiotics to keep the rumen in balance and an added benefit of an increase in appetite when the SE is used. I would also consider using some glucosimine/condroyton (Sp?) to help with the joint trauma.
 
Thanks everyone. Geez, I hope I didn't up the dose too much! I gave her 1.2cc of dex at noon today. She seems to be doing ok and perks right up every time we go in to exercise or feed her. Do you think I'm giving too much dex Scott?
 
Try sending a Private message to Scott Heinrich or send an email to

[email protected] He is a DVM in Texas.



Do not give both Dex and Banamine please.

Also, get some vitamin b complex and thiamine shots into her daily.

Maybe contact a Veterinary physical therapist to work on her.



Best of luck,

lana
 
Thanks lana, I am not giving banamine as my vet would not sell me any. We have had an animal chiropractor out to check her and she claimed to re align her....but it didn't do a thing. I will get the drugs you mentioned. Are they both given by needle? Thanks. Also, where is the best place to give Im shots? I have been giving in the rear upper leg area. Is this ok? I'm just scared to do anything near the neck
 
Derek - IM shots...give them in the hind quarter...and remember to asperate the syringe first before pushing in the med to make sure you don't have a vein.

I always go in from the very back of the hind quarter and where the white hair is, and I don't ever remember hitting a vein there, but I continue to asperate anyway. Going in from the side of the hindquarter you are sure to hit a vein sooner or later.



Check your private messages...I sent you one.
 
Thanks a million mark! Great tip on where to needle. I didn't know about checking if you were in a vein :(. I'm very new to this gig, but I'm loving it. So nice to chat with people who have been there, done that. Can you let me know if you got a private message from me? I'm trying to figure out how to do things on here. How do you post pics with replies etc? Thanks
 
Here's a diagram of the deer anatomy showing major blood vessels.

See http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/418773/enlarge

I just did a google search for one a while ago and pulled up a few anatomy charts.



I give my Rosa her vaccinations subcutaneously (usually) in the neck, as you would a horse, right in the area of where the neck meets the top of her chest (in the triangle area).



When doing IM shots (I have never done one independently), the DVMs usually do them into the middle-lower part of the widest part of the let.
 
Derek said:
Thanks a million mark! Great tip on where to needle. I didn't know about checking if you were in a vein :(. I'm very new to this gig, but I'm loving it. So nice to chat with people who have been there, done that. Can you let me know if you got a private message from me? I'm trying to figure out how to do things on here. How do you post pics with replies etc? Thanks
Click to expand...



Yes Derek...I got it.

Keep us all posted on that little doe of yours.

Sure hope she can pull through this!
 

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