Fawning Over Fawns

As some of you may know I am working in Louisiana this summer. If you would like to learn more about what I am doing here check out my previous blog. One of my primary responsibilities is to care for the fawns on the farm. These little fawns are some of the cutest things I have ever seen. Once you become their "mother" through constant feedings they begin to trust you and will run up to you if you have a bottle or they think you do and they will lick you. The doe fawns are the only ones we bottle feed except in special circumstances. They are hard not to love. There are any different aspects of taking care of the fawns and it all starts just a few hours after they are born.

                                           

To start out the lives of our fawns we bring them up to the house between six and twelve hours after birth. We do this so we can do what we call "tagging." This involves vaccinations, probiotics, measuring, and ear tagging. During this process we also take hair samples so that their DNA can be recorded and their pedigree can be certified. They are also assigned a microchip so they can be tracked and permanently identified. Some of the measurements we take are weight and chest girth. These measurements make sure that the fawn is at a healthy weight. During the tagging process we write everything down to make sure that all aspects are done. After everything else is done we put an ear tag in their ear. Doing it when they are young makes so that they do not remember it and it is a good time.

                                           

Feeding our fawns is one of the most important things we do with them. All together we are currently feeding 16 fawns. Two of these are bucks who had extenuating circumstances in which they needed to be bottle fed. Normally we would only feed the does fawns. Feeding the doe fawns helps to make them more docile so that you can approach them, work them, and handle them in a safer manner. We feed the fawns a million replacer that we mix into warm water. We were feeding the fawns four times per day and that will be changing to three times per day. These babies love to eat and will climb over each other and nearly break down the door to get their bottles. While feeding the fawns we wipe their bottoms just like their mother would. This stimulates them to defecate. We stop doing this once we see them go on their own. We record how much the fawns drink at each feeding, what there feces are like, and any medicines they get. Record keeping is very important. Feeding the fawns is enjoyable because they usually do crazy and adorable things.

Giving medicine to the fawns is also very important. We have had a few instances where fawns have needed medicine. One of the most common problems we face is scours, or diarrhea. We determine when we need to treat for this when we have runny feces. To combat scours we give them scour medicine and if that does not work we give them activated charcoal. Usually a combination of these two will work. It is a worse situation if we find blood in the stool. This can be an indication of different kinds of parasites. To treat this we gave multiple kinds of medicines. There was some we had to give to the whole herd of fawns to make sure they didn't have parasites and one was a dewormer. We managed to get it under control twice. One of the last major medical issues we had was an ulceration of an eye on a buck. We treated this buck for over ten days using a regiment of ophthalmic solutions. His eye was very cloudy when we started and now we is much better and now he can see again. All of these different ailments have been an educational experience and we have done well in treating all of them.

Before                                    After

It is also important that we keep an eye on the bucks that we are not bottle feeding. After they are up and running around and nursing we do not worry about them as much but until then we check on them and make sure they are alive and nursing.

      

Taking care of these babies has been very rewarding and a learning experience. It has been great to see these babies grow up and the change is easy to see when you look at our youngest and oldest doe fawns. They have grown so much and are so sweet.  They are adorable and I will miss them when I leave.

               













 All Photos By Justin Hohlen