Help...fawn problems

This year we have had to take 6 fawns out of our pens because their mothers would not take care of them. When we would bring them in we would feed them and then after that they will get the hiccups. Then after this they will stop eating. They become weak quickly. They will stand up but hold their head down and wont pick it up. Then a couple hours after that they wont eat anything, will just stay laying down, are really weak, and go limp. A few hours later they will die. Two days ago I went out in the morning to go check on a buck fawn that wasnt getting fed, and I brought him to the house he ate then after that he got the hiccups. Later on in the day I checked on him and he had got weak. When he would stand up he wouldn't hold his head up. Then later on in the night he wouldnt get up and just laid on the floor. We put him in the playpen with a heat pad he survived the night (he's the first) and survived the whole day would not eat anything. Then this morning when I went to check on him he was dead. What could this be. Every fawn we have had that had these hiccups had ended up dying.

Sounds like the fawns are weak from lack of food to start with. The only fawns I ever had that acted like that were fawns I had got milk into their lungs. I also was just starting in the deer business and used human baby bottles which I had cut the nipple opening larger. I now use pritchard nipples and have for twenty years.



Wnen you start with a baby which is going into a lack of food situation you have to tube that baby if it is warm to reverse the situation. The lack of food causes the baby to become weak and die. Just my guess on your problem.

What are you feeding them?

What does their poop/stool like...

There is a reason the moms are not taking care of them.

You need to talk to someone on the phone that knows can go through everything with you from birth to death to figure out what is going on...

Pick one someone on here...Give a call

I had one that lived for 2 and a half weeks that would eat and she had the hiccups all the time then one day she just got sick wouldnt eat, got really cold, then went limp. We fed her with a syringe and got her going again then around 12:00 at night the whole thing started all over again then at 3:15am she died.

We feed them: Save A Kid

Some have brown stickyish stool and others have a yellowish brownish normal stool

One of the two owners of the farm and help raise the fawns thinks that some mothers wont take care of them is because they tag them to soon and the babies dont have time to bond with their babies

We tag all of our fawns within 24 hours, and knock on wood we haven't seen that kind of behavior out of our momma does.

They sometimes tag them within 6 hours....Could it be that they are new mommas.....Our older does that have had babies before are doing great.

OK let's look at the facts here and try to figure out what we are dealing with....

1. All have hiccups.....How strange, I have rarely seen fawns with hiccups

2. They stop eating soon after that.........hummmmm

3. They get weak and do not hold their heads up...........not good

I see atrend developing.......Have you tried any medications at all? If so, what have you used and why? Are the fawns live cover births or AI? Is the sire, regardless of conception the same to all of the fawns? Are you sure the hiccups you see are actually hiccups? Could the "hiccups" be jerking or seizing? Got a video of the hiccupping fawns? This problem intrigues me and I would love to know what it is. Did you get necropsies on any of the fawns? I'm sorry I have more questions than answers, but this is an unusual problem.