Week 4 with 2 more!

That's right, we now have 6 fawns! Of course we are expecting 40+ fawns, so there is a long ways to go! But the two newest ones are Mushroom (in the front) and Feisty (in the back). They arrived here at Fawn Country this past Sunday to be hand raised.

Boy are these six girls a handful! They now have an out door play area that they have free access to during the day. The older fawns love to race around it at top speed, narrowly avoiding each other. The younger ones are more apt to jump and skip around, then to race the older fawns. Once they tire they will either curl up outside in the pen, or walk back onto the porch and fall asleep in some hay or in the dog kennels that have been put out there. When its time to feed them again, we call them to us by grunting to them like their mother would, and they come running! Some times were are still getting the bottles ready when they swarm us. They usually know when its time to eat, and will come before they are called. The two youngest fawns don't yet come when called, but they will learn yet.

During and feeding time and after when wiping butts, you have to watch out because some of the fawns, mostly Miss Ann and Sandra have taking to chewing on the baby wipes, both clean and dirty. Miss Ann also has taken to chewing on my shirts! Chewing on clothing and giving nips and licks are signs of the fawns bonding to us. So while the nips may be a bit painful, they are a good sign.

Something sad happened this past week. A young buck fawn that was brought to us died. Normally we don't hand raise the bucks, but this would have been the exception had he lived. The owner, and one of our customers had brought him to us after one of his does gave birth to triplets. One was born and an appeared healthy, one was a still birth, and the finally one was born very very small. He was hardly 3 pounds (average is about 6 lbs) and could not stand to nurse. Even if he could stand, he would not have been able to reach is mother. So they owner brought us the little buck in hope that he could be saved. Unfortunately fate was against us. The owner waited over and hour before picking up the fawn. He should have been grabbed immediately, as he was to small to reach his mother, regardless of whether or not he could stand.

When the tiny fawn was given to us, he was wrapped in a blanket and placed on a heating pad to be kept warm. When his temp was taken it was 93 degrees, normal temp is 101.5-102. He was very cold. We gave him some warm ringers solution and gave him some goat colostrum to try to give him something akin to the passive immunity that his mother would have given him through her milk. Unfortunately our efforts were futile as he quickly passed.

Another scary event that happened this past week was that one of the fawns, had a little run in with a door. Literally. Margarita was in the pen when a truck drove by in close proximity to where she was. Needless to say, the truck spooked the fawns that were outside. So the little ones ran as fast as they could back on the porch. Margarita was unable to stop in time and hit one of the windows on the porch door with her head, shattering the glass pane! We cleansed her wound with a saline solution and put some Nolvasan on it to prevent infection. Then we went about cleaning up all the broken glass and removing broken shards from the the door. After which we covered not only the empty window, but all the bottom windows with cardboard to prevent such another injury.

Well, it sure has been an exciting week! While the six fawns we have now may not be a lot, more should be arriving in about 10-12 days, just in time for the third intern to arrive!