Problem with a fawn. Help

We have a fawn that is smacking his lips and foaming at the mouth. Does anyone know what might be wrong?

Foaming like rabbies? Do you have skunks in the area? Any signs of having been bitten?

No, don't really have any skunk in the area. We do have ground hogs though. Couldn't see any bite marks. So your saying it could be rabbies.

I am no expert by any means. It was just the first thing that popped into my head. Can you give everyone more information and see what anyone else comes up with.

How long has this been going on?

Age?

On the mother or bottle raised?

Anything else you can think of adding.

No bite marks and no other signs or symptoms of rabies. The fawn was at our feeder feeding and kept smacking its lips as if it had eaten something that it didn't like and couldn't get the taste out of his mouth. The foam was thick and frothy and when a little would fall off then more would come out while the fawn was smacking its lips. This fawn was born late and I was afraid initially that maybe mom stopped feeding him which forced him to eat something he shouldnt have, however, shortly after he left the feeder he, and his brother, appeared to be feeding from mom. The fawn looks healthy other than the foam and there was no foam present this morning but we are still concerned.



Thanks,

Daniel

Hollow Road Whitetails

Sometimes they will get a pellet or piece of feed stuck and this will cause them to slober alot. Just a thought but sounds like he is fine.

Sounds like Michael could be correct in his thought.

My cousin many years ago threw cobs of corn straight from the field into the pens for the deer to chew on. Then one day he saw a doe that had her cheek and tongue looking swollen. She also was foaming now that I recall his story to me. Turns out she had a husk from off of a corn cob stuck between her tongue and jaw bone. It had irritated the area to the point it was causing swelling and infection. He had to knock her down and remove the husk and give her antibiotics for the infection.

It could be that the foaming is their way of trying to "clean" the area of whatever is irritating them.

I guess if the fawn is eating and not losing weight or looking droopy I wouldn't stress about it too much.

Good luck

I think you guys are right because he seems fine today. I watched as he was eating and drinking this morning and nothing was abnormal. Thanks

for the input guys, it is always greatly appreciated.



Jason

Hollow Road Whitetails

Hi Guys:



Unfortunately that fawn has continued foaming from the mouth. My vet said it could be a number of things including something caught in the fawns mouth and she wants to examine him up close and so we have to dart. This fawn was born late and is very small (i guess 35 lbs max) and so I am a bit concerned. I will be doing the darting. Does anyone have any tips or experience in darting such small deer? Any information would be extremely helpful.



Thanks,

Daniel Zola

Hollow Road Whitetails

I tried finding your phone number in my NADEFA directory but no luck.

I will give you a short post about my thoughts for darting a small fawn.

If your using a Telazol and Xylazine mix of approximately 5cc or 6cc of 100mg Xylazine to 1 bottle of Telazol I would use a 1/2cc dart with a 3/8" needle. If you only have 1cc darts you can do that but might want to finish the balance of the dart volume with clean water then. Also if you have only 1/2" needles use can slip a very tiny amount of cardboard over the needle to shorten the needle length to prevent the needle from going to deep.

I would only blow dart the fawn. With some practice you can blow dart up to 20 feet pretty easy and even further.

You don't need to buy some fancy blow dart gun. A simple piece of copper tubing that is just big enough for the dart to slide through works great. Be sure it is straight.

When that moment of truth comes and you are going to blow dart the fawn DON'T over blow. It will cause you to miss. Just blow the same way you did while practicing.

It really isn't that big of a deal.

Good luck