Wildlife: First Fawn of the rehab season, 1 by jylgaskin

jylgaskin wrote:
It's been a busy day around here, too many animals, not enough hands. I built a huge fenced in area for my young chickens and turkeys today. About an hour after I got them in there, the peacock decided to join them and later, I found the lame wild turkey tom (he was struck by a car, three weeks ago) standing forlornly by the fence, so I let him in. It must be the flock instinct, because he is calmer and more content than he been the whole time he has been here. He isn't well enough to respond to the young turkeys and peacocks displays, but he did a lot of gobbling.
At least now, everyone should stay out of the garden. (I hope)

Some bunny has been in the garden! Even with the fence, the cottontails find a way to my spinach, lettuce and green beans. I can't complain a whole lot though, I raised most of the rabbits in the neighborhood and really don't begrudge them a free meal now and then, but I do wish they would let the beans, get their second set of leaves at least!

I opened the door on the squirrel cage this morning, so the baby blacks could get used to the outside world and meet the other yard squirrels. Usually they just venture out to the tree above the cage for the first few days and sleep in their pen at night till they are used to being on their own. Well, by noon, I went out there and they had guests for lunch. Instead of two squirrels in the pen, there were 4. Just like adult children, the not only don't move out, but they bring their friends home too! Well, at least they are making friends.

The fawn caught a chill yesterday, but seems to be doing much better today with antibiotics, a heating pad and an indoor play pen. I tried to find a vet that would see him, but not many will treat wildlife and even fewer are willing to see a deer. Finally, I went out "trick-or-treating" for drugs and found a friend with some left over antibiotics from her goat. (Deer are treated similar to goats). It's working, thank God, and he now has a St Francis medal tied to his playpen. (I need all the help I can get) I think he rather likes the play pen thing and being in my studio, but tomorrow, while it's warm, he goes back outside to be a DEER.

Someone brought in a baby duck tonight, that's about a day old. My Aconna duck just hatched out her babies yesterday, so as soon as this one is on his feet and healthy, I'll kidnap a few of hers for a day and send them all back out together to her. I've found that I can get her to accept wild babies this way. Last year, she raised two mallards and a Canada goose. It was a real riot watching her with her string of little yellow and gray ducklings and then two odd aged mallards and a half grown goose following behind.

Well, it's off for the last feeding before bed for all of us. I think tonight, the fawn can go all night without a bottle in the middle. The photo is of the Squirrel pen with to juvenile blacks. (The smaller cage is full of red squirrels, but that's another story.)

Goodnight all.