Fawn going bald

Deermomma2020 said:

I have a 5 week old buck fawn, started going bald, he is doing great otherwise. I found him at about 1 day old, very tiny, left on the side of the road, mother was hit. I bottle fed him with colostrum mix for first 2 days then switched to goats milk(Manna). He sleeps inside on floor on dog pee pads, he occasionally pees during night and lays on it till morning when he gets up to eat, wasn't sure if that could cause hair loss? He eats apples and sweet feed also. He eats bottle,apples,sweet feed every 5 to 6 hrs, we take him out to pee and poop and run after each feeding, he also eats clover and flowers while outside.

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Following as I have the same thing going on with a baby buck that I fostered. His mother had also been hit and killed and the fawn was less than a week old. He is approaching 3 mths old now and also going bald. He is eating on his own outside now but still wants his bottle twice a day. I blend his milk replacer with clover, wineberries, granola, bananas, raw egg, carrots, and a children's Flinstone vitamin. I have property for him to roam on and he leaves every morning and comes back at night to sleep in the garage although he has started staying out all night. Besides the fur loss, he appears perfectly healthy and shows no signs of dehydration or stress. I have contacted multiple vets in the area for help and none will advise anything due to the ban on rescuing deer due to wasting disease. Hopefully someone will have some input here.

I have four fawns. All separate moms. Two are going bald. One is four months, one is not quite four months. Negative coccidia, treated for ecoli as precaution. They both had severe diarrhea (at one point it was straight blood; local rescue center said they had seen a LOT of ecoli this year for some reason). Giving live probiotics. Still get a bottle a day. On corn, fresh vegetation, Timothy/alfalfa pellets. Gave a shot of B12. Hair just comes right out. Checked for lice and mange. All negative. All eat well and are gaining weight. Just hair loss. Vet and I are stumped.

I'm wondering if this could have something to do with them shedding out their baby fur and getting in there adult fur? I know I've had goats that have done this but I'm not sure if a deer would do this?

I kind of thought that at first, but I have an older fawn who hasn’t done this and she still has her spots. Reached out to another group and someone suggested it could be a selenium deficiency…?

Did you ever figure out what was going on. I have a 2 week old fawn who's hair is falling out. She in nearly bald, no scratching or scabs.

Shana said:

Did you ever figure out what was going on. I have a 2 week old fawn who's hair is falling out. She in nearly bald, no scratching or scabs.

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The best I can tell is that it’s stress. We had an opossum do the same thing. After the diet was settled and we had a routine the hair grew back. My two fawns are starting to regrow hair, but it is going to take a long time. We’ve tested for everything else and it’s all come back negative. So weird…