Each year during the spring and summer months, the Wildlife Center admits dozens of White-tailed Deer fawns. As of June 7, the Center is caring for seven fawns.
Fawns are most frequently admitted to the Center following dog attacks, collisions with vehicles or farm equipment, becoming orphaned, or because they were “fawn-napped”-- that is, they were picked up by well-intentioned citizens who believed these fawns to be orphans. Fawns are often the victims of this sort of well-meaning “rescue”, because that they are often by themselves during the day while their mothers are feeding quietly nearby.
White-tailed Deer fawns require intensive and specialized care, making them some of the most difficult patients to care for at the Center.
• Fawns typically spend three to four months at the Center, and they require multiple bottle-feedings each day throughout most of the summer.
• Fawns have very sensitive digestive tracts and therefore require a specially-formulated diet. The Center purchases a fawn-milk replacer formula; the formula needs to be mixed, warmed, and bottle- fed to the fawns – a time consuming process.
Some well-intentioned rescuers offer cow’s milk to rescued fawns believing it to be an appropriate substitute for mother’s milk. However, this is not the proper formula for a fawn and it can cause severe digestive issues —and even result in the death of the fawn.
• Fawns are “high-stress” and often do not thrive in captivity. While some fawns readily accept being bottle- fed by humans, other fawns have a difficult time adjusting to being cared in captivity.
Because they are “high-stress” species, they are very sensitive to the activity and noise that is typical of the busy wildlife hospital. As soon as possible, fawns admitted to the Center are moved to outdoor enclosures farther away from the busy hospital. Those tasked with caring for and feeding the fawns need to be especially quiet and calm during feeding or while working around their enclosures, so as to not cause additional stress for the fawns.
• Fawns can potentially transmit zoonotic diseases to their caretakers – when feeding the fawns, staff and students wear gowns and gloves as personal protection against possible transmission of bacteria or parasites from fawn to human. The potential of zoonotic disease transmission is one reason why it is never appropriate to hold wild deer fawns, or bring fawns into your own home.
Because of the difficulties of raising fawns in captivity, it is always best to try to reunite a deer fawn with its mother in the wild.
Still, a number of fawns do require the specialized care offered by veterinarians and wildlife rehabilitators. Fawn patients go through several stages of care at the Wildlife Center.
Initially, each fawn is housed individually indoors while the veterinary team performs fecal examinations to ensure the fawns do not have parasites that could spread to their future fawn roommates. Once medically cleared, the fawns move outside into deer runs and are introduced to one another in small groups of two or three.
Fawns are started with bottle-feedings multiple times each day. When a fawn becomes comfortable with bottle-feeding, it is soon transitioned to “rack-training” to minimize contact with people. Rack-training means the rehabilitation staff and students no longer need to hold the formula bottles for the fawns – the young deer can access their bottles on a rack in their enclosures.
As the fawns mature, the rehabilitation staff and students begin introducing "browse" into the fawns’ diets – the students go into the woods surrounding the Wildlife Center twice a day to trim fresh branches and leaves for the fawns.
When the fawns are able to successfully bottle-feed and are starting to nibble on browse, they are eventually moved to one of the Center’s deer yards – where they will be a part of a herd of up to 15 or 16 deer.
The seven fawns currently residing at the Center are bottle fed three times daily; half of the fawns have been moved to outdoor deer runs while the remaining half are still being housed separately until they are medically cleared. Once all of the fawns are moved to the larger deer yards together later this summer, they will be slowly weaned from their bottles to prepare them for release. Fawns will remain at the Center until the late summer or early fall.
Your support will help the Wildlife Center care for dozens of fawns this year, as well as thousands of other wild animals that need our specialized care.