Prodical Son returned

On 4/13 one of my buck fawns (Thunderstrike triplet sons) and the 2 yr. old loaner breeder PA Geronimo son got away from me and disappeared in the woods. They were seen 2 days later about 1 1/2 mile down the road, but none of the alerted neighbors had seen them since. Today at lunchtime my fawn was back in the pen they escaped out of and he seems to be happy to be back.


He is a mess, compared to the other deer!!! He is skinny, full of ticks, bald around the ears, has mostly still his wintercoat and his antlers to be are tiny, nothing compared to his womb brothers. I did get him to take Ivermectin paste on apples, so at least that should take care of some parasites he picked up in the wilderness.


Now my question for you experienced farmers: On the back of his right little antler stub the velvet is rubbed off, it looks a little raw, but not bloody. Could he get infection? How would I notice? Symptoms????


He is pretty subdued. Looking/acting like he is tired and just glad he is safely home. He spent most of the remainder of the day in the shelter eating feed and hay. Took apples, bread, carrots and some twigs. He used to be the bold, daring one, biggest of the triplets, but today he was plain exhausted acting.


Any advice what to possibly do to get him back to his old self? Add maybe sunflower seeds to feed to get his weight up? I guess I have living proof that decent feed does make a big difference as to overall condition and antler growth. LOL I'm just so thankful that he did come back!!


Also I wonder if the two bucks would still have been together so that I can really hope that the big one is right here close by? Did anybody have a situation like this before? Please share!!!


And thanks again Jonathan Bell for calling me after they escaped and you were right, at least 1/2 right, so far.

Thanks for the info. And" he found out the grass is not greener..." yeah, that's what I thought too. Kind a like "Sick of the wilderness, aren't you? Wasn't that great after all, was it?" The boy even let me touch his nose today while I was handing out some tender leafy twigs. He must have about 50 ticks, big and small on his ears. The spot where the velvet is rubbed off looked like an abrasion today, dried, like getting a scab on it. He was not very interested in apples, carrots and bread (their daily goodies), he stuck with feed, hay and greens.


Jonathan, as to the big boy, we don't really have field fences around here. Some pastures are barb wire fenced with cattle on them, one property has horses with electric horse tape fence and the woods on the farms around here are unfenced. Have not have any trail cam pics of him. I got 2 bucks occasionally on them, one is possibly a 3 yr. old and the other looks more like 1-2 yr. old. Neither one shows up regularly at corn piles. All woods around here are extremely brushy, can't see more than 10 yards, if that far, so I don't have cameras anywhere in the woods at this point. I set them up where there is deer traffic, one spot is where they originally went into the woods.


So I'll keep on looking, feeding turkeys, crows, coons, possums etc. in front of cameras and have the pen open with corn pile topped with attractant.


 


Would you all have advice what possible health issues/symptoms to watch for in the fawn, in case he did catch disease or has infection somewhere? So far he looks healthy, walks right, no limp, no open wounds visible, clean rear end, clear eyes, nose etc. The only nasty looking area is the area around ears due to the ticks, but no swelling there either. I'll try over the next couple of days if he lets me touch him more, then I could get some insecticide on him. I had been thinking of putting him out, but since he looks all stressed and the ticks are going to fall off, I figured I rather leave him alone and wait it out, unless he starts looking/acting sick. Thoughts???