My First Deer Death in the Five Years I've been Raising Deer

Well, I knew it would come sooner than later and have felt very fortunate to have gone 5 years without ever losing a deer but today I lost a fawn.  Yes, of course it was a buck fawn.  I then noticed I had another fawn that allowed me to get a little closer than normal and another that has a bad limp due to a problem with one of her front legs.  I've always prided myself in keeping a very watchful eye on my herd and intervening as early as possible so I did give those two some antibiotics via dart.  I have a couple questions though and I'm hoping all of you will give me some suggestions.  Here's a little synopsis of what has been going on:


 


I had a couple adults that were not looking real good and I suspected coccidiosis so I have been treating my water with corid.


 


Secondly, due to the non-stop rain this year, I added some 4 G Aereomycin crumbles to my feed.  I top dress it at a rate of 8 OZ a day for 10 adult deer.  I just made a guess based on the treatment levels for other animals listed on the bag.  Please let me know if  this sounds like it is not right.


 


My main question is could these two medications adversely affect the fawns if  they eat the feed or drink the water?  My gut feeling is I don't think it would drastically affect them and I think the constant wet weather was or is the culprit affecting both fawns and adults.  The fawn wasn't old enough to be eating the feed but could have been drinking the water.


 


Also, do you think I reacted too fast at administering antibiotics  to the two other fawns? 


 


The funny thing about this is I'm very anti medication unless it's needed.  I raise chickens and other animals all on non-medicated feed but I just feel with as much as I have invested in my deer, I need to do whatever it takes to keep them healthy.  I was only planning on running the Aereomycin for about two weeks.


 


Thanks in advance and please give me your thoughts.


 


Thanks, John.

Thanks for the replies so far. One of the fawns I treated yesterday seemed weak today so I caught him with a net and gave him lactated ringers and vitamin B complex. How many cc's are ideal when giving the ringers? It wasn't easy holding a nearly 2 month old mother raised fawn!

I held it and kept its legs in tight.  My wife placed the needle and squeezed the bag to get it in faster.  I think I got about 300 cc's in which is quite a bit but I didn't know if I would be able to catch him again and I knew I had to let him go so he could be fed.   I also gave him some fawn revive probiotic paste.


 


When I was  administering the ringers, he had a bowel movement and it was green and runny but not quite like diarrhea.  Any thoughts on that?  I did take a sample but I don't know if it will still  be good by Monday.

I darted with Noromycin 300 LA already but I can always dart with some penicillin if there is no improvement. 

Update:  I did lose that buck fawn today.  My wife and I had given him additional antibiotics and ringers then let him back out in the pen to feed.  He fed off multiple does but continued  to lose weight daily.  I'm thinking his gut was not allowing his nutrients to absorb properly.  I also gave him PB paste each time I had my hands on him.  I was out of town but my wife was with him when he died and said he had blood coming from his rectum.  Any thoughts on that?  Also, he never had a fever but was sometimes under the norm.


 


In addition, I have some doe fawns that seem to be having similar symptoms which include lethargy and the beginnings of their rear legs bearing wobbly combined with the normal poor body posture.  One other thing, my wife picks up most of the feces in the pens daily and said she found some from a fawn that was whitish.  The one that died was initially green and runny then firmed up but has some mucus in it.


 


My thoughts are now Clostridium or Coccidiosis. I'm treating for Coccidiosis now in the water but if the fawns don't drink it, it doesn't help.  If they get bad enough that I can catch them,  then I'll get it in them.  I am switching from Corid to the generic Albon because I read Corid inhibits the Thiamine absorption.  I need to get C and D Anti-Toxin from what I've been reading. 


 


Finally, I'm going to PSU to get a necropsy done in the AM.  I didn't get ahold of them today but did leave a message.  I believe they have a drop off available even if no one is there but if you have experience with that location please let me know.


 


It's pretty discouraging.  I now lost 2/4 buck fawns.   Thanks.

Thanks Adam.  The one that died never had the white feces.  His was runny and green and then normal with mucus.  I guess more than one thing could be going on.  I'm leaving for the lab in a few minutes so hopefully I can get some specifics.  Thanks.

The necropsy revealed cryptosporidiosis. From what I've read, the are no medications that target crypto effectively. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.