Our school year officially ended on Wednesday so the boys planned a hike in the woods for their first day of "summer vacation" the following day. They each strapped on their new "Camelback", an Army quality backpack which is a water thermos. They were ready for adventure but could not foresee how exciting it would be!
They called me out to see this just born fawn which they came upon in the woods. The mother deer had just given birth to twins and spooked when she saw the boys who had no idea she was there. The one fawn went with her, but this one remained.
They tried to get her to follow her Mom, but she must have imprinted on them because she followed them home instead. They put her in the empty peacock house while deciding what to do.
We decided that the best thing, would be to take her back to her birth spot and hope that the mother deer, hearing her cries, would come back to somehow claim her.
This was amazing to see. She really was following them. She was still damp and so cute and tiny.
They were able to find the spot which was off the trail.
Sure enough, this was the birth sac left on the leaves.
The mother was nowhere to be seen. They hid and waited for her to show up. The problem was that every time they moved, the fawn tried to follow.
The decision was made to walk back home and the newborn came along, too. After speaking to their aunt, who is an exert on deer habits, the boys put the baby at the edge of the woods under some leaf cover again for her mother to hear her. Two hours passed and it was getting cooler outside. Their aunt said that it would need to be fed some colostrum.
We stopped at Tractor Supply Company for a bag of "colostrum and milk replacement" and goat nipples. Tori, our resident animal whisperer, was now home and able to lend a hand. She got right to work mixing up the formula.
It was difficult to get the fawn to nurse off the bottle. Eventually, they were able to get her fed and continued to offer the bottle every two to three hours with varied success.
It will remain to be seen if she survives the next few days, but the goal is to get her strong enough to get back out into the wild, if at all possible.A local wildlife rescue may be a big help there.
