I took in 2 fawns about 2 weeks ago. Was told the fawns laid in the same spot for 2 days non stop bawling and on the second night they were found walking down the road crying and staggering. They still had the cords on them. The lady that found them called our wildlife management officers and they said if they come out they'd have to euthanize them. The closest rescue which was 3-4 hours away had stopped taking any animals because they were already trying to relocate 25 other animals and so that's how I got them. She had them I belive 2-3 days before contacting me. She been feeding them lamb replacement every 4 hours and would stimulate after every feeding.
They were both females. 1st time I weighed them one was 7.6 and the other was 5.6. I continued the same feeding pattern but skipped the might time feedings because I thought they were being fed to often due to the small portions they took each time. Their poop wasn't pellets but more like what I'd call logs. This is my first time taking care of fawns so I hit the web hard trying to learn as much as I could. First thing I wanted to do was clean them up because they had already started using the bathroom on their own and they both had dried poop on them and the urine smell was very strong. Baby wipes and warm wet paper towels were not doing the trick and for a day and a half I tried my best to find anything about bathing a deer and found nothing. Only thing I kept thinking was if blue dawn is safe for a duckling covered in oil then surely it's safe to use to get poop out of deer hair. Ok so now I have 2 clean healthy looking fawns. I kept them inside in a kids corral type thing. I offered them fresh water from the beginning.
Skip ahead a few day⁰ and their doing good. I take them out and let them wonder around for a while and then I'll bring the corral outside and let them stay in it a few hours. Next weighing I cant exactly remember but I know my little one went up I think from 5.6 to 5.8 and my big one went from 7.6 to 8 something. First weighing was probably a week or so after I got them and the second was 2 days after that. This past Sunday I built them a decent size encloser behind my house. (We live on a 105 acres which is why I was asked if I could take them) Monday they were outside a lot in the kid corral while I finished up their outdoor pen. It was a decently hot day probably mid 80s. Tuesday I put them in their new outdoor pen fed them and let them try to stay as much in tune with nature as I could. Checked on them a few hours later and this is when it started going down hill. My runt had flys all around her and when I went to feed them I noticed right away that the base of her tail was covered in what I'm guessing was fly larva. Looked like clumps of uncooked rice. I immediately bathed her again in blue dawn ( I feel like I'm probably going to be scolded for the dawn bath simply because I found nothing on bathing a fawn which tells me people don't typically do it) after her I bathed the other. Got them inside and the runt wouldn't eat. Straight to the web again which for the most part always brought me to here. Wed. their poop was a little on the runny side so I started giving them pedialyte and also read on here about poking a whole in the end of a vitamin E capsul and squeezing it into their mouth but what I did was I used an extra medicine syringe that came with children's Tylenol to mix the vitamin E in with 5ml of pedialyte. The reason for 5ml is because thats all the syringe would hold. I force fed the runt that night but the bigger took a bottle. That night the runt started breathing weird. It was slow, deep and with every breath her nose would curl up and she would make a sniffing sound like it was hard for her to get a good breath. I immediately thought phenomena. Thursday I called the rescue place the lady that found them originally called hoping she could shed some light. She said it sounded more like coccidia. She told me to give her a mix of 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda mixed with a teaspoon of pancake syrup. Then said to pick up some penicillin and give her a .02cc dose in the muscle. She also said to pick up some Probios and a couple of nipples and to stop using baby bottles because of the air the fawns can get from them. Got all that plus some Bounce back and a multi species milk replacement because it listed fawns and elk calves on it.
Got home tried feeding them and the runt still wouldn't eat. The other took 4 ounces quicker than she ever has. I used the new formula instead of the Lamb replacement we had been and tried a new nipple (Had I known just 2 days ago what I know now about how delicate their stomachs are to changes in food I would've held off.) Force fed runt a little bit then force fed pedialyte with Probios mixed in it. Gave her the .02cc dose of penicillin which honestly was such a small amount in the syringe I don't really know if she even got any ( I did check to make sure I was not in a vein also) this was day 2 of the breathing issue. She was extremely lethargic and had no desire to stand either. I kept them inside that whole day as well. We put one of their dog beds we bought them in the corral and as usual they walked in climbed up on their bed and cuddled up together. My wife checked on them an hour later and they were asleep. An hour later I went to check on them. I had a small moving blanket thst I would lay over the top of the corral so they felt safe. As soon as I pulled the blanket back I immediately knew based on how she was laying she was gone. Legs were still very flexible and body was still warm. It couldn't have been more than a few mins before I checked on them that more poor little runt had taken her last breath. I had also done their 3rd weighing right before they got in their bed. The bigger one was back down from 8. smething to 7.6lbs and my runt had went from 5.8lbs to 4.6lbs. The next morning big'un ate halfway decent but not at all close to what she should be eating. One thing I forgot to mention was the Friday before all this started big'un started having trouble in her right eye. Minimal amount of off white discharge and when she would wake up her eye would be matted shut. I read on here also that I could treat that with triple antibiotic ointment or at least I thought I did. I did pick up some but with everything else going on and not being 100% sure that's what I had read I never tried treating it with that but I have used regular eye drops twice a day. Nothing has changed with that.
Yesterday morning I gave big'un a .1cc dose of penicillin in rear leg muscle, she didn't eat very good at all. I took her put for a while and walked her up into the woods. (I know I should've done this sooner but yesterday was also the first day I offered fresh clean dirt. I got a small bucket of it while we were on our walk.) After that I took her to my garage with me so I could keep an eye on her. I was sitting in my chair and she was standing in my lap facing me just going to town with my nose ears and anything else she could lick/suckle. In the middle of this she let what I thought was the cutest little deer fart and while laughing at what I just heard I looked down and realized it definitely was not a cute little deer fart. She had the full on runs which I'm guessing is scour. I took her out in the yard and she just kept having these little squirts of poop shoot out faster than I could clean her up. As much as I hate to admit this she went straight to her 3rd blue dawn bath. This time I had her in the kitchen sink standing on a shower mat and everytime I would rub my hand across her rear-end to try and get it clean here the squirts came. I bet it happened every bit of 8-10 times during the bath and thats on top of the 2 or 3 before that and of course the first one she did in my lap. I gave her pedialyte, a dose of Probios and a 1/4 of the recommended amount of Bouce back. Bowel movements remaind extremely runny the rest of the evening. Last night is when I found out how sensitive their stomach is.
This morning we decided to stop the multi species replacement and go back to the lamb replacement. She drank 4 ounces this morning had a decent poop right after eating that wasn't nearly as runny as yesterdays. Next feeding she took 2 ounces with a full dose of Probios and 10ml of Bounce back out of the medicine dropper. She did pee after that but no poop. Didn't look like she touched the dirt from yesterday either. When I took her outside today she started chewing and licking on some taller grass that's under my kids trampoline. This is the first time she's ever done that. The next feeding no luck so I force fed her a little bit but nothing close to what she needs. I also brought her in some of the grass and clover from under the trampoline. Had to go to the wife's parents house for Father's day this evening and thought for sure she'd be hungry when we got home. I opened he corral ad she came out like she was hungry. Followed me all over the place till I made her a bottle. She drank maybe an ounce. She'll lick the nipple then turn her head away from it like she can't stand it. Thursday I picked up 2 different types of niples trying to get them away from the baby bottle. Thought maybe she likes the baby bottle better so I tried it and same thing, licked it and turned her head. Remembered reading on here where guys tried the formula in a bowl same thing. Went to the fridge to put the formula back up and noticed the cap on the gallon of whole milk in there and it hit me. When I would see "Do not give them cows milk" it was typically followed by the mentioning of fresh goats milk. Common sense kicked in and it made sense then. When you all mention "Red cap" milk you're referring to whole milk which is ok but it's fresh cows milk that's unpasteurized that isn't good for them. Knowing now how sensitive their stomachs are I didn't want to switch right into a 3 milk but I was a little curious so I poured just a little bit in a little small bowl and didn't even warm it. Put it in front of her and although she only took a few little tastes she at least didn't turn her nose up to it. I force fed her a little bit of pedialyte and she was done being force fed anything and off to her bed she went. I put live fed/motion camera up over her corral looking down over her dirt and grass plates to see if maybe she's getting into them while we aren't around.
I've read on here a few times where guys have said sometimes trying too many things at once actually just makes things worse so I thought tomorrow I wouldn't do anything extra other than the penicillin dose which I'm starting to second guess whether the dose the rescue folks said to give her is even enough or if it's even doing anything. I started this one on it trying to be proactive and get a head start if she may have what the runt had.
Here are a couple things I'll mention that may or may not figure out what's going on.
* We have 2 dogs that also stay in the house
* The puppy pads we put down in the corral are scented.
* The runt would pee every night right where she was laying without even getting up. The other doesn't do that.
* I sprayed for bugs the day before I got them in the same area I would move their corral to when I put them outside. Didnt even think about that until just now.
* Initially we were using tap water for their formula but our water is well water. The last couple tests were positive for bacteria but I can't remember what they said it was. The well guy said it's nothing to be too concerned about because it was bacteria we come in contact with daily. So 4 or 5 days ago we switched to bottled water.
* We reheat what's left in the bottle until it's gone. Sometimes it gets heated once sometimes it gets reheated 3 or 4 times.
* Big'un recently started chewing a lot like she's chewing her cud but I didn't think they do that if they're still just bottle feeding. She also licks her nose and all around her snout a lot. Sometimes she does it almost like you had just rubbed something tasty on her snout. Almost comical it's so fast and so long.
* I haven't taken her temp yet but her nose is moist and cold. Not sure if that's normal or not
Here are my questions.
☆ What could've caused my runt to go downhill so quick?
☆ This one I still have would suck on my earlobe all day long if I would let her even when she doesn't want to eat. She even starts making noises like she's aggravated nothing is coming out. Why will she do that but not eat?
☆ Any idea how I should go at dealing with the eye issue?
☆ Is the penicillin dose of .1cc correct for her weight of 8lbs?
☆ Could she possibly just have a stomach ache and if so what options do I have to treat that?
I'm sorry for the long post but I figured if you knew as much details as possible it might make it easier to pin point the problem.
Thank you any advance for any and all help.
They were both females. 1st time I weighed them one was 7.6 and the other was 5.6. I continued the same feeding pattern but skipped the might time feedings because I thought they were being fed to often due to the small portions they took each time. Their poop wasn't pellets but more like what I'd call logs. This is my first time taking care of fawns so I hit the web hard trying to learn as much as I could. First thing I wanted to do was clean them up because they had already started using the bathroom on their own and they both had dried poop on them and the urine smell was very strong. Baby wipes and warm wet paper towels were not doing the trick and for a day and a half I tried my best to find anything about bathing a deer and found nothing. Only thing I kept thinking was if blue dawn is safe for a duckling covered in oil then surely it's safe to use to get poop out of deer hair. Ok so now I have 2 clean healthy looking fawns. I kept them inside in a kids corral type thing. I offered them fresh water from the beginning.
Skip ahead a few day⁰ and their doing good. I take them out and let them wonder around for a while and then I'll bring the corral outside and let them stay in it a few hours. Next weighing I cant exactly remember but I know my little one went up I think from 5.6 to 5.8 and my big one went from 7.6 to 8 something. First weighing was probably a week or so after I got them and the second was 2 days after that. This past Sunday I built them a decent size encloser behind my house. (We live on a 105 acres which is why I was asked if I could take them) Monday they were outside a lot in the kid corral while I finished up their outdoor pen. It was a decently hot day probably mid 80s. Tuesday I put them in their new outdoor pen fed them and let them try to stay as much in tune with nature as I could. Checked on them a few hours later and this is when it started going down hill. My runt had flys all around her and when I went to feed them I noticed right away that the base of her tail was covered in what I'm guessing was fly larva. Looked like clumps of uncooked rice. I immediately bathed her again in blue dawn ( I feel like I'm probably going to be scolded for the dawn bath simply because I found nothing on bathing a fawn which tells me people don't typically do it) after her I bathed the other. Got them inside and the runt wouldn't eat. Straight to the web again which for the most part always brought me to here. Wed. their poop was a little on the runny side so I started giving them pedialyte and also read on here about poking a whole in the end of a vitamin E capsul and squeezing it into their mouth but what I did was I used an extra medicine syringe that came with children's Tylenol to mix the vitamin E in with 5ml of pedialyte. The reason for 5ml is because thats all the syringe would hold. I force fed the runt that night but the bigger took a bottle. That night the runt started breathing weird. It was slow, deep and with every breath her nose would curl up and she would make a sniffing sound like it was hard for her to get a good breath. I immediately thought phenomena. Thursday I called the rescue place the lady that found them originally called hoping she could shed some light. She said it sounded more like coccidia. She told me to give her a mix of 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda mixed with a teaspoon of pancake syrup. Then said to pick up some penicillin and give her a .02cc dose in the muscle. She also said to pick up some Probios and a couple of nipples and to stop using baby bottles because of the air the fawns can get from them. Got all that plus some Bounce back and a multi species milk replacement because it listed fawns and elk calves on it.
Got home tried feeding them and the runt still wouldn't eat. The other took 4 ounces quicker than she ever has. I used the new formula instead of the Lamb replacement we had been and tried a new nipple (Had I known just 2 days ago what I know now about how delicate their stomachs are to changes in food I would've held off.) Force fed runt a little bit then force fed pedialyte with Probios mixed in it. Gave her the .02cc dose of penicillin which honestly was such a small amount in the syringe I don't really know if she even got any ( I did check to make sure I was not in a vein also) this was day 2 of the breathing issue. She was extremely lethargic and had no desire to stand either. I kept them inside that whole day as well. We put one of their dog beds we bought them in the corral and as usual they walked in climbed up on their bed and cuddled up together. My wife checked on them an hour later and they were asleep. An hour later I went to check on them. I had a small moving blanket thst I would lay over the top of the corral so they felt safe. As soon as I pulled the blanket back I immediately knew based on how she was laying she was gone. Legs were still very flexible and body was still warm. It couldn't have been more than a few mins before I checked on them that more poor little runt had taken her last breath. I had also done their 3rd weighing right before they got in their bed. The bigger one was back down from 8. smething to 7.6lbs and my runt had went from 5.8lbs to 4.6lbs. The next morning big'un ate halfway decent but not at all close to what she should be eating. One thing I forgot to mention was the Friday before all this started big'un started having trouble in her right eye. Minimal amount of off white discharge and when she would wake up her eye would be matted shut. I read on here also that I could treat that with triple antibiotic ointment or at least I thought I did. I did pick up some but with everything else going on and not being 100% sure that's what I had read I never tried treating it with that but I have used regular eye drops twice a day. Nothing has changed with that.
Yesterday morning I gave big'un a .1cc dose of penicillin in rear leg muscle, she didn't eat very good at all. I took her put for a while and walked her up into the woods. (I know I should've done this sooner but yesterday was also the first day I offered fresh clean dirt. I got a small bucket of it while we were on our walk.) After that I took her to my garage with me so I could keep an eye on her. I was sitting in my chair and she was standing in my lap facing me just going to town with my nose ears and anything else she could lick/suckle. In the middle of this she let what I thought was the cutest little deer fart and while laughing at what I just heard I looked down and realized it definitely was not a cute little deer fart. She had the full on runs which I'm guessing is scour. I took her out in the yard and she just kept having these little squirts of poop shoot out faster than I could clean her up. As much as I hate to admit this she went straight to her 3rd blue dawn bath. This time I had her in the kitchen sink standing on a shower mat and everytime I would rub my hand across her rear-end to try and get it clean here the squirts came. I bet it happened every bit of 8-10 times during the bath and thats on top of the 2 or 3 before that and of course the first one she did in my lap. I gave her pedialyte, a dose of Probios and a 1/4 of the recommended amount of Bouce back. Bowel movements remaind extremely runny the rest of the evening. Last night is when I found out how sensitive their stomach is.
This morning we decided to stop the multi species replacement and go back to the lamb replacement. She drank 4 ounces this morning had a decent poop right after eating that wasn't nearly as runny as yesterdays. Next feeding she took 2 ounces with a full dose of Probios and 10ml of Bounce back out of the medicine dropper. She did pee after that but no poop. Didn't look like she touched the dirt from yesterday either. When I took her outside today she started chewing and licking on some taller grass that's under my kids trampoline. This is the first time she's ever done that. The next feeding no luck so I force fed her a little bit but nothing close to what she needs. I also brought her in some of the grass and clover from under the trampoline. Had to go to the wife's parents house for Father's day this evening and thought for sure she'd be hungry when we got home. I opened he corral ad she came out like she was hungry. Followed me all over the place till I made her a bottle. She drank maybe an ounce. She'll lick the nipple then turn her head away from it like she can't stand it. Thursday I picked up 2 different types of niples trying to get them away from the baby bottle. Thought maybe she likes the baby bottle better so I tried it and same thing, licked it and turned her head. Remembered reading on here where guys tried the formula in a bowl same thing. Went to the fridge to put the formula back up and noticed the cap on the gallon of whole milk in there and it hit me. When I would see "Do not give them cows milk" it was typically followed by the mentioning of fresh goats milk. Common sense kicked in and it made sense then. When you all mention "Red cap" milk you're referring to whole milk which is ok but it's fresh cows milk that's unpasteurized that isn't good for them. Knowing now how sensitive their stomachs are I didn't want to switch right into a 3 milk but I was a little curious so I poured just a little bit in a little small bowl and didn't even warm it. Put it in front of her and although she only took a few little tastes she at least didn't turn her nose up to it. I force fed her a little bit of pedialyte and she was done being force fed anything and off to her bed she went. I put live fed/motion camera up over her corral looking down over her dirt and grass plates to see if maybe she's getting into them while we aren't around.
I've read on here a few times where guys have said sometimes trying too many things at once actually just makes things worse so I thought tomorrow I wouldn't do anything extra other than the penicillin dose which I'm starting to second guess whether the dose the rescue folks said to give her is even enough or if it's even doing anything. I started this one on it trying to be proactive and get a head start if she may have what the runt had.
Here are a couple things I'll mention that may or may not figure out what's going on.
* We have 2 dogs that also stay in the house
* The puppy pads we put down in the corral are scented.
* The runt would pee every night right where she was laying without even getting up. The other doesn't do that.
* I sprayed for bugs the day before I got them in the same area I would move their corral to when I put them outside. Didnt even think about that until just now.
* Initially we were using tap water for their formula but our water is well water. The last couple tests were positive for bacteria but I can't remember what they said it was. The well guy said it's nothing to be too concerned about because it was bacteria we come in contact with daily. So 4 or 5 days ago we switched to bottled water.
* We reheat what's left in the bottle until it's gone. Sometimes it gets heated once sometimes it gets reheated 3 or 4 times.
* Big'un recently started chewing a lot like she's chewing her cud but I didn't think they do that if they're still just bottle feeding. She also licks her nose and all around her snout a lot. Sometimes she does it almost like you had just rubbed something tasty on her snout. Almost comical it's so fast and so long.
* I haven't taken her temp yet but her nose is moist and cold. Not sure if that's normal or not
Here are my questions.
☆ What could've caused my runt to go downhill so quick?
☆ This one I still have would suck on my earlobe all day long if I would let her even when she doesn't want to eat. She even starts making noises like she's aggravated nothing is coming out. Why will she do that but not eat?
☆ Any idea how I should go at dealing with the eye issue?
☆ Is the penicillin dose of .1cc correct for her weight of 8lbs?
☆ Could she possibly just have a stomach ache and if so what options do I have to treat that?
I'm sorry for the long post but I figured if you knew as much details as possible it might make it easier to pin point the problem.
Thank you any advance for any and all help.