Newborns and weather

Brett,


  I would have to say it would depend on how much rain and the temp.


 We lost 4 this year do to a very fast heavy rain.

Rain at cold temps or windy conditions are very bad for deer when first born.  As pens get eaten down and brush is killed it gets worse.  We have boxes and sheds but when first born they just don't use them.  We also lost some this year to weather. 

Rain is bad, weather it's warm or cold, it can be bad. If they are 12-24 hours old before the rain comes then they are much stronger and usually a short heavy rain won't kill them. But if they are born in the rain and have no way to dry off, it can be very bad. I lost a set of twin does born in the middle of the night during a 65 degree rain.One was dead by morning, the other was weakened and didn't make it a week, that being said I also had several sets born in heavy rain and all survived. You just never know really All you can hope is your does are smart enough to have them in a shelter. That gives the fawns the best chance

Matt

I agree, that first 48 hrs. is the critical time when you don't want a gully washer at a cold or warm temp. I believe some newborns simply sometimes drown because they don't keep their chins up. Weather is very influencial on the immune systems and stress of the deer at all ages.

2 years ago we had cold rains and temps in the 40's-low 50's and when these fawns got chilled down it's hard to get them up and sucking. If you try and take it in out of the rain and dry it off, most time the mother wouldn't take it back or maybe accept one of the twins. If they don't get the colostrum, they are about as good as dead. This year I built a bunch of 4'x8' A-frame shelters and they worked great, every time it was cold and windy or raining they would be cozy inside em. I know it saved me a bunch of dead fawns this year. A warm rain shower isn't that bad but cold is terrible for me anyways. Of course my does always go to the corner with the most mud to fawn out too, pretty tough for em to warm up laying in cold water and mud.

I totally agree with you Bell. I have had 3 babies born.... it rained that evening and I had one... it rained the next day. The baby was in a river. When I went in the pen was her nose went under water. She was right in the middle of the stream of water. I firmly Belive if I had not gone in when I did, she would have died.

They do not know what to do. (In my opinion)

not only do you have problems when they fawn but we had several inches last year and had trouble with ear tag infections and lost a few.  And then during the winter lost 3 due to fuso, and I know it all had to do with that rain when they were young.  I vowed that I would never lose another buck fawn due to an eartag infection, so this year we only used microchips in the non-bottle fed buck fawns.  We always bottle feed a handful to help calm the herd. Now there is one big disadvantage and that is that we will not know who is who by sight but alive is better than dead any way you look at it.

Agree with all the posts...rain is bad for new fawns.  Two years ago I had a doe give birth to two buck fawns in the rain.  I checked on them about an hour later and one was on his back like a turtle.  That's not a real good posture for a fawn so I immediately took his temp. and it was down about 2 degrees.  I took him in, warmed him up for a short time and returned him to my doe.  He is  now a two year old and my farm sire.  I believe a little digital thermometer is priceless and you can pick them up for $10 or less.


 


By the way, this "imprint" brings up a great topic.  I plan on experimenting with an imprint time on all my doe fawns in lieu of bottle feeding because this buck is now my tamest deer purely from about 1-2 hours in  the house right after he was born.  Imprinting may not work for everyone but I'm small enough that I could probably get each doe fawn shortly after birth.  Think of the time and money this would save, but more importantly, momma always does best.

Jerri Lee

I have often wondered how much of the time it has been environmental stress caused by the weather that has been the cause of health issues on our farm.

John

The imprint thing will work fine on genetic lines that have calm dispositions. We have noticed all are not the same on our farm. Some are wired to be higher strung and crazier than a high limb squirrel.

Jonathan,


 


Specially them All Stars.  hehehehe