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Problems starting 3 day olds on bottle..

J

jadaho

Joined May 2015
98 Posts | 0+
KY
Good morning,


I pulled my triplet doe fawns last night around 7:00 p.m., lots of bleating at 5:30 this morning, but won't volunteer to take bottle. I have regular baby bottles (for human) and Pritchard nipple bottles and can't get more than 1/2 oz-1 oz into each fawn, with the Pritchard seemingly being a little more welcome. But have to force nipple into their mouth and let it run in, they don't suck. To keep them somewhat strong I gave each a dropper of electrolytes (Dumor/TSC) and vitamins (Lixotinic/vet). They had no output. Had seen them nurse around 6:30 last night before I pulled them. They finally settled down now and look o.k., as far as I can tell, this being the first bottlefawns for me newbie.


Is this normal? How do you get them to take to bottle and what nipple works best for you? Never had problems starting lambs on baby bottle nipples. But they are greedy to start with.


Advice please!!!! Greatly appreciate your help!!!
 
You have to force them to take the first feeding, sometimes several of the first feedings, until they will suck on their own. We always used 2 people at first, 1 to hold the fawn (keep it standing on the ground) and 1 to pry their mouth open and get the nipple in. Usually once they figure out that it tastes pretty good, they will suck without any problems. We use regular baby bottles and nipples but whatever they get used to is fine.
 
Some can bee the shits. It sometimes helps to have them in a dark place when trying it the first times, they seem to take it better. It just takes patience more then anything and letting them get used to you. If you force too hard sometimes they just lock up and fight ya. They will eventually get hungry enough to want to take that first suck, sometimes 24-48 hours later before they are sucking on there own. good luck
 
It was my first time as well this year. I was having the same problem it had been like 48 hours maybe even a bit longer since he had eaten. He would lick the milk off of my fingers but would only get a little bit. Mike Kerry had told me to put my head down by his and see if he would suck on my ear or lick my forehaed and he did. So when he was licking my forehead i had my daughter drizzle the milk from bottle down my forehead and got the nipple closer and closer to his mouth. All of sudden he got a hold of the nipple and it was all good then. What a relief !!!! I was trying to force it as well, no luck with that at all. Just like SDBIGBUCKS said, he would just fight. 


We are using the Pritchard nipple.
 
Sometimes a bigger size nipple hole will help them start. Go back to the smaller hole once they take the bottle.
 
Thank you so much for your advice and ideas!!!  Speeny, I don't even want try to explain how my son and I were laughing, trying to imagine how you did it!!! Pretty innovative!!!


Well, so far the biggest girl has fully gotten the hang of it, comes out of the pen, seeking out the bottle. Nibbled on some clover too. The miniature baby (she weighed only 5 1/2 lb) did pretty well at lunchtime, sucked on her own but not vigorously, slowly about 2 oz.


The middle one started every now and then to slightly suck while I have her rear tucked against me, bottle cradled in right hand, fingers alongside her mouth so she can't turn head left or right. Left hand behind her head with fingers gently at neck to feel if she swallows. Got about 1 oz in. She is pretty busy kicking around but I did make the hole a little bigger so stuff is basically running into their mouth and all over, down my arm. Will keep on and exercise patience.....


Thanks again and have a blessed day.
 
Should have known better.... Around 5:30 p.m. I found both (middle and miniature fawn) laying in the pen, almost unresponsive. After over 4 hours of intensive care both are responsive again and got some nutrients in them. Fixed them full amount of milk replacer in 3 oz water, caro syrup added. With the Pritchard nipple functioning like a drip because they don't suck. This is on top of lactated ringer, B12 shot, dextrose shot, electrolytes and vitamins in milk with dropper. The middle one was doing worse than mini and is still on heating pad. Gonna be a long night. Please pray that they pull through, if you don't mind. Thanks!!!
 
Sounds like it may be necessary to tube them. I would do it before they get any weaker.
 
I always try and leave everything I can on the doe if possible, sometimes if I have a yearling or a problem doe that just claims one I'll pull it if it's starving and I know it wont survive.  I usually end up with just a couple but this year I have 10 and its a full time job. The tamest ones I have are NOT bottle fed. I have several does I can scratch on the head that are mother fed. I'd say 60% will eat leaves out of my hands, it just takes time with them. It also seams like bottle feds are a pain in the a$$ when it comes to always sneaking thru an open gate that I'm carrying feed or something thru once they get to be a yearling. If I didn't have to, I would never bottle raise a fawn. It does seem like the does that bring the best money are the bottle feds.
 
All I ever heard and read is that if you raise them on bottle they'll be tame and I do wish to have tame does. Big difference between my two does. One is tame, comes, eats out of hand from anybody, lets anybody pet her. So stuff like applying frontline or Ivermec pour on is not a problem. The mother of these three doe fawns will NOT want to be touched. Stays usually approx. 5 ft away from me. The closest we get is appleslice between my fingertips and her mouth (with stretched out neck) on the other end of the slice. So I figure her girls won't necessarily be cooperative as they get older. Thinking of stress for the deer, wouldn't a tame one be less likely to freak out and kill itself??


Anyway, the middle and mini fawn continued to not suck and to fight me. Started to wonder why the basic instinct of not wanting to starve would not break their "rebellion". But rather than killing them by insisting on their cooperation I concluded I'd rather have shy does than dead does. So I gave them a penicillin/lactated ringer dosage wrestled some electrolytes into them and brought the middle one out first, back to mom. She immediately ran to the doe and was accepted and nursed. Upon seeing that I brought the little one out too and by now I've seen them nurse 4 times and being cleaned up. So much for now with my ambition to bottlefeed them. The third one spend the afternoon in the fawnpen (12x12 chainlink kennel) and just eagerly drank her milk. She's got messy poop though, started to add pumpkin to the bottle and quit offering it when she starts losing interest after about 4 oz.


And I start learning as sdbigbucks said, it's a full time job. I had to call in at work to take the day off, these girls kept me occupied yesterday evening for about 4 1/2 hours straight (missed church), several checks throughout night and care most of today until I brought them out. Welcome to the real world I guess. How do you folks that have dozens of fawns do it?
 
A 5 foot doe is calm but I wouldn't say "tame". I don't have a chute but many farmers say the dog tame does are a little harder to work / handle. I have a very calm herd and do not bottle feed but my wife or I are in the pens everyday. We also have smaller pens so that helps. Most importantly, I have exposed them to many types of stressors such as lawn mowers and tractors in the pens, 2 dogs, 4 little kids, cars going down the road, gunfire, etc. They will get used to anything you expose them to to on a regular basis and that makes them calm. Also, with the doe fawn market so weak, it doesn't pay to bottle feed them. I recently had a runt of a doe because she was a triplet and thought it would be fun for the kids to bottle feed. Then I came to my senses and figured if I wanted her to thrive, I'd leave her with her mom.
 
Jadaho, that's great news that you got them going again and back on the mom! Usually if I have one that is unresponsive or close to it, its hard to bring back to life. I guess that's why I pulled as many as I did this year. Last year I left a few that I thought maybe were getting neglected too long and did end up loosing some, this year I just pulled em to be safe. I had a bunch of triplets this year also and ended up pulling the runts, some were too tiny to reach the doe. All are doing good on the red cap milk, first time for that too. It is a lot easier then mixing replacer and they are growing like crazy, 3 are probably as big as my biggest doe feds fawns. Time in the pen and treats and tree leaves will make them really calm and like Paden Creek, we are in our pens at least an hour or so every day. It also helps to start them in a smaller pen with no trees or places for them to keep hidden.  
 

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