Fawn Health
You can find info on this page to help you raise healthy Fawns
More medicines can be found on the Suppliers page of this web site

Caution ! The medicines and cures on this page are NOT an exact science.
They are cures that have worked for other deer farmers and compiled on this single page for you to use.
What works for some may not work for others.
Every animal is special and needs its own special care. Deer farmers know more about Deer than most vets.
I will be updating this info as time and input become available. Thank you Wayne Pederson

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Most botanical dewormers can be also found as homeopathic preparations, which are free of side effects and do not require a fasting or laxative period. Common botanical dewormers include garlic in pills or powders, fresh tinctures such as wormwood or Artemisia spp., wild ginger or snakeroot, goosefoot, conifers, mustard, squash or pumpkin seeds, carrot and fennel seeds, and pyrethrum, a plant extract from chrysanthemum.

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 SQ / MS
One thing that confuses quite a few people is that most liquid medications that you purchase will have the quantity in the bottle expressed in ML (millimeters) and most syringes that you buy will have the increments in CC's. To simplify, 1 ml and 1 cc are the same.
SC (subcutaneously), means under the skin between the skin and the flesh. Give it in the area around the front shoulder because it is easier to lift the skin away from the muscle
IM (intramuscular), means in the muscle. The rear hip is a good location

When you see The Directions that say SQ that is the only way it should be given.
If it says IM on the directions you can give the shot IM and also SQ.
When given IM the drug acts fast.
When given SQ it acts slow.
Some people give the IM shots, IM and SQ (double dose) at the same time.
The SQ injection gives a longer acting effect of the medicine due to the slower absorption into the system.

Antibiotics administered through darting is a poor choice as the amount dispensed by the dart is insufficient, and multiple darting is very stressful on the animal.

"Want to be Mama".
Wait to take the fawn away from its mom late in the evening NO sooner then 12 hours after birth (They must have their Mom's first Colostrum to survive) and don't try to feed them until the next morning.
They are very hungry by then and seem to accept the bottle better.
Sit down on the floor cross legged and fold the baby up in your lap. Try to use your left hand with your arm over its back to pry the mouth open by placing your thumb and finger in in it's mouth on each side of its lower jaw and hold the bottle with the other. This way when they throw their head back it will be harder to lose the nipple from their mouth. Be gentle about opening their mouth as you may injure them.
This "force-feeding" process usually doesn't last long once you gain their trust and they realize you are "mama".
You must stimulate them to defecate and urinate until they are about 3 weeks old every time you feed them. You can do the stimulation thing with a damp warm sponge.
Generally they will go for you while they are eating and you stimulating them at the same time. If they don't go, don't try to force them every time.

Generally a fawn will start feeding on greens at about 2 weeks of age. One way to get a bottle baby started eating solid food is, you can take green clover or alfalfa and let them sniff and lick it until you can put it in their mouth and let them nibble, also you can use a pellet crushed and push it in the back corner of their mouth.
Or you can use a small piece of Wheat bread. The yeast in it helps set up the digestive system.
What works for one doesn't always work for the next.
Make sure you ALWAYS have fresh water available from day one and keep fresh greens available.

Deer are normally browsers and eat leaves from Dogwood, Poplar, Oak, Maple, Elm, Willow, Apple trees and many more. Alfalfa and Clover's are top choice of legumes.

Dirt
You must offer black dirt in a dish (fresh every 3 days) from day one until released. There is good bacteria in the dirt that the fawns need to get their rumen started.
Get the black dirt from your yard where the grass grows, you can have some sod roots in it.
( Do not use Potting soil ! )
This is for them to set up their digestive system to digest the plant life in your area.
Every location has a different bacteria specific with that location.

Any time you give antibiotics it is a good practice to give them some yogurt or some type of probotic in a paste form.

Rectal temperatures. should be about 101-102F.

Supplies
Usually they will get sick on Friday night and you can't get to the Vet, you will need the following supplies on hand:
Milk replacer
Bottles with spare nipples
Gelling type Electrolyte
Tylan 200 or LS 50 lincomycin-spectinomycin.
7% tincture of iodine
Pumpkin pie mix
Yogurt
Needles and Syringes

Colostrum Supplements
Every newborn needs Colostrum to survive and it is really only absorbed for the first 12 hours of life.
Colostrum has a large percent of immune globulins and is very high in Vitamin A.
A colostrum supplement is okay to feed and can be fed anytime for as long as you want, but its immune benefits are only absorbed for the first 12 hours.
Some people will say 24 hours but the first 6-12 are the most important.
Best absorption is within the first 6 hours of life.

Colostrum Supplement
Multi-species supplement provides needed proteins, vitamins and minerals to calves, foals, lamb and goat kids, llama and alpaca crias, fawn and elk calves, baby pigs and puppies. Each lb contains 30,000 IU vitamin A, 5,000 IU vitamin D3, 150 IU vitamin E, vitamin B12, ascorbic acid, 22% crude protein and 20% crude fat.

For clostridia problems you can use Covexin 8 on 3 day old fawns.
Give 1 1/2 to 2 cc subcutaneously. If the fawns are bigger give 2 cc and a booster shot it in 3 to 4 weeks.

You should give shot of Covexin 8 to any Fawn that has been orphaned or rejected by the Doe, as soon as possible. And follow up with a Colostrum Supplement

Milk replacers that work for Whitetail Fawns and may be available at your local feed store.
Caution should be used mixing replacers manufactured for Goats and Sheep as most Deer farmers have found that feeding the factory recommended mixture causes scours in Whitetail Fawns
Land O Lakes Lamb milk replacer, Mix 1/2 the required amount of powder. (double the water amount)
Land O Lakes Goat milk Replacer, Mix 1/2 the required amount of powder. (double the water amount)
Merrick Lamb or Goat milk Replacer, Mix 1/2 the required amount of powder. (double the water amount)
And new to the market and may be the best is Zoologic Doe Milk Replacer available on this website's Suppliers page
Goat milk, Straight goat milk is the best, they don't poop as much on goat milk.

If you find it necessary to change milk replacers,
Do not switch milk completely at one time but gently over period of days.
You should mix the new with the old in increasingly larger proportions and take several days or even a week to complete the change over to the new milk replacer.
Changing all at once can cause the fawn to stop eating, or if it does eat, it can cause scours.

Worming Fawns
It is recommended to wait until the fawns are 3 months old to de-worm if warranted. (IE: fecal sample reveals infestation.) At 3 months use the same deworming product as you use on the adult deer.

VALBAZEN is a good and easy to administer oral wormer for Fawns

Safe-guard paste Apple-cinnamon flavored oral dewormer is safe and convenient, it is a microorganism that helps to digest food.

Coccidiosis treatment for Fawns
If you took a fecal sample to your Vet and he said your fawn had Coccidiosis, Use Corid, 20% powdered on fawns, mix 3 1/2 oz powdered Corid to 1 quart water.
note; 1 oz Corid = 3 1/2 table spoons.
Give each fawn 6-7 cc of this solution each day for 7-12 days.

Fawn Coccidiosis can also be treated with 3cc of liquid Corid put in with the formula or water bottle. Feed once each day for 5 days

If you have a problem with them not liking the taste you can add apple flavored Jell-O powder to the formula or you can add apple cider or juice

Navel infections.
Iodine is a good disinfectant with an injection of a penicillin - streptomycin mixture often works fairly well. Give for 3 days.

Fawns with scours and extremely loose stools
You need to stop scours fast.
It is always important to keep the bottle, nipple, etc. as sterile as possible.
A remedy that has worked for many farmers feeding fawns is as follows.
Day one, Mix 1/2 milk replacer with 1/2 gelling type Electrolyte, 1/2cc Tylan 200, 1cc of Tincture of Iodine 7% in the first feeding and drop back to 1/2cc after that in every bottle.
It has also been found that what works best with the iodine is 1cc of Tylosin with the first treatment of iodine and 1/2cc morning and evening after that. Do both for 24hrs after symptoms stop.
Day two, Mix milk replacer, 2 teaspoons of 100% pumpkin, 1 teaspoon of yogurt, 1/2 cc Tylan 200 and 1/2 cc 7% tincture of iodine in every bottle.
Day three, mix milk replacer, 2 teaspoons of 100% pumpkin, 1 teaspoon of yogurt, in every bottle.
Give this until 24 hr's after the symptoms are gone.
Also put 3/4 cc Ivomec pour on on their back.
Spray vinegar on their butts after every feeding to stop the sucking if you have fawns in together.
Worm all the fawns!
100% pumpkin filling is found at your local grocery store; usually in the baking section.
Don't mix the electrolyte gelling agent until right before your feeding, it will get thick in about 2-5 minutes.
These gelling electrolytes keep their stool thickened and they get a chance to retain some water as well as food values from the milk
It is good to give plain Dannons yogurt, give about 1 teaspoon of yogurt (mixed in the milk replacer) per feeding to help maintain proper bacteria.

There are several fairly good drugs that counter e coli and most types of scours.
Biosol Liquid Can also be added to their milk for treatment of bacterial diarrhea and bacterial enteritis.

There's Ampicillin, neomycin sulfate, oxytetracycline, biosol and lincomycin with spectino-mycin (LS 50).
Most have had great luck using the LS 50.

There are a lot of gelling electrolytes out there that firm their stool.

Another method is to put flour in a pan and scorch it on the stove. Skip a feeding or two and then mix the scorched flour in their bottle. It may put a stop to the scours.

Blindness
Many times the blindness can be reversed with a good antibiotic therapy. Use Penicillin G at 1.5cc sub-Q dosage rates for 5 consecutive days on fawns with bacterial infections that settle in their eyes (generally detectable by a blue opaque pigment) with great success. It is important to remember to use probias or yogurt during the treatment period to maintain bacterial growth in the rumen.

IF the fawn is merely circling or "dazed" it could be thiamine deficient instead of blind. This can happen after deworming or if the animal is still "polluted" with parasites. (Have a fecal sample checked!)
Vitamin B-Complex-Plus high in thiamine will normally correct this condition. your hint re: worming set the cure in motion.
Give up to 3cc of VITAMIN B12 1000MCG INJECTION, w/12.5 thiamine. If the animal's need is for thiamine, top dressing pelleted food with Brewer's Yeast will help.

"Warts".
Are generally harmless and fall off on their own.

Heel Fly or Warble flies
looks like a small puncture wound or like a huge pimple.
Take a pinch of black pepper and dab in puncture or hole. You will see a small black head protrude in and out.
Take a small tweezers while someone holds fawn and reach in and pull it out. keep the area clean and it will heal up.

Shelter for Fawns
Plastic barrels work very well. Put them along the edge of the pen (They seem to follow the fence line) with straw inside.
Or you can make small lean-to's with plywood attached to the fence or tree and staked to the ground on the low end.
The fawns will go to them and this will keep the older deer from picking on them. Works great for bad weather also.

Separate the Bucks
It is wise to separate the Buck fawns in the fall from the adult Bucks that are in with the Doe as some Bucks will kill them.
I personally have purchased two bucks for my shooting preserve that did this.
One killed all 5 of his own 5 month old sons within a week of each other before we picked him up. He did not kill the Doe fawns.
Not all bucks are this way, but is it worth it to keep them together?

Vitamins and Antibiotics

Albon 12.5% Solution - Albon is effective in the treatment of shipping fever complex and bacterial pneumonia associated with Pasteurella spp. sensitive to sulfadimethoxine; and calf diphtheria and foot rot associated with Fusobacterium necrophorum (Sphaerophorus necrophorus) sensitive to sulfadimethoxine in cattle. Administer in drinking water or to individual cattle as a drench. In cattle, only 4 oz treats 1 - 600 lb animal initially or 2 - 600 lb animals

Baytril 100 Contains 100 mg enrofloxacin per ml, (enrofloxacin) Injectable Solution is the newest class of antimicrobial that kills the major bacteria that cause pneumonia in cattle.
 
Biosol Liquid For treatment of bacterial diarrhea and bacterial enteritis in cattle, swine, sheep and poultry.

Blu-Kote Antiseptic protective wound dressing treats ringworm, surface wounds, cuts, galls, pad sores, etc. Aerosol formula is quick-drying and deep penetrating.

Bluelite - BLUELITE® C is designed for oral use in young calves prior to weaning. Mix BLUELITE® C into all fluids (water, milk or milk replacer) fed to calves showing signs of dehydration or body shrink as a result of disease, moving, handling or sorting.

Colostrx - Failure of Passive Transfer: COLOSTRX® supplies a guaranteed quantity of absorbable immunoglobulin to aid in the treatment of failure of passive transfer in newborn calves less than 24 hours old. Diarrhea Control: Serves as an aid in the prevention of scours by supplying antibodies that block the K-99 E coli process.

Covexin 8 For the active immunization of healthy sheep against diseases caused by Clostridium chauvoei, Cl. septicum, Cl. haemolyticum (known elsewhere as Cl. novyi type D), Cl. novyi, Cl. tetani, and Cl. perfringens types C and D. Although Cl. perfringens type B is not a significant problem in the U.S.A., immunity may be provided against the beta and epsilon toxins elaborated by Cl. perfringens type B. The immunity is derived from the combination of type C (beta) and type D (epsilon) fractions.

Corid 9.6% Solution Aids in the treatment and prevention of coccidiosis in calves. As a drench: Treatment - mix 3 oz/1 pt water and give 1 oz/100 lbs body wt daily for 5 days; Prevention - mix 1-1/2 oz/1 pt water and give 1 oz/100 lbs body wt daily for 21 days. In drinking water.

Dectomax For treatment & control of internal and external parasites in cattle and swine, including gastrointestinal roundworms, lungworms, eyeworms, kidney worms, grubs, sucking lice & mange mites. - Dectomax Injectable is a long-lasting, broad-spectrum product that removes and controls 36 stages of internal and external parasites, including adult and some larval stages. By controlling some of these parasites for as long as 28 days, Dectomax not only removes parasite infestations, it actually prevents new infections by preventing eggs from being shed on pasture for up to 8 weeks.

Electrolyte Formulated to provide essential electrolytes and special direct-fed microbials, a source of live (viable), naturally occurring microorganisms. Highly palatable, non-gelling formula. Mix 4 oz with 2 qts 90 - 100ºF water. Feed 2 qts 2-4 times daily for 2-4 days depending on condition of animal. Withdraw all milk products and free choice water during treatment. Discard solution not consumed within 12 hrs.

Levamisole Soluble Wormer Powerful, fast-acting anthelmintic that controls lungworms, nodular worms and large roundworms Mix in their water the dose needed to medicate the pounds of deer in the pen and leave it until it is drank. Don't use this in the hottest time of the year. Gets worms that Safe-guard & Ivomec DO NOT kill

L-S 50 Soluble Powder Is a good antibacterial Works great on E coli and Pneumonia.

Caution High doses of LA 200 have been known to cause abortion in pregnant Doe in the early and late stages of pregnancy.

LA 200 is oxytetracycline a BACTERIA STAT. It is best used as a respiratory drug or for shipping fever controls bacteria by preventing reproduction. Caution should be used when administering high doses to pregnant Doe's as it may cause them to abort their fawns

Micotil® (tilmicosin injection) is the proven, fast-acting, long-lasting cost effective Bovine Respiratory Disease therapy..
DANGER
A death that resulted from an area cattleman injecting himself with a livestock drug should be a reminder to farmers and ranchers to use caution when medicating animals. Any amount of Micotil 300 can be deadly. Even Elanco, the company that produces the drug, says as much.
Before you can get a prescription for Micotil the vet and ag producer must have what's formally called a "veterinarian client patient relationship." That means the vet has examined the animals in some way within a reasonable amount of time before making the prescription.

Nuflor is a broad spectrum antibiotic and is long acting, therefore, it works in the treatment of deer because you don't have to treat them everyday as you would with penicillin. It is a good drug to use for pneumonia.

Penicillin is best used for infections. It is very underutilized in deer. (LA 200 is not the same as penicillin.) There is also a short, and long acting penicillin. Various kinds are BACTERICIDES, they actually kill the bugs. Any brand will be fine.
With Penicillin always use the long lasting kind. Give 4 or 5 times the recommended dosage when treating infections.

Probios Bovine One - Oral Gel Helps establish and maintain intestinal well-being in your incoming feedlot cattle, dairy cows/calves, veal calves, goats and sheep. Dairy cows: Administer 30 gms at freshening and 15 gms 7 days post-calving; Goats and sheep- 5gms. See label for beef cattle, veal and calf dosages. Gun features a lock-pin for ease in administering 5 cc, 10 cc or 15 cc doses.

Iodine Apply once daily for cuts, abrasions, insect bites or bruises. Cleanses with soap & water. Excellent to paint baby navels at birth to reduce disease & bacteria entry.

TYLAN 200 Antibiotic, For the treatment of disease in beef cattle, non-lactating dairy cattle & swine

VALBAZEN Take the recommended cattle dose and mix it with about a quart of water. Then pour this mixture over a 5 gal bucket of feed (can be less) mix it thoroughly, let it dry overnight and then feed it. This should kill all parasites including liver flukes.

Vision-7 vaccine developed for the cattle industry. Is used for Clostridium deficiency. Use the recommended dose.

Vitamin A-D Injectable Sterile solution of vitamins in oil for use as a source of vitamins A & D3 in cattle, sheep & swine. Contains 500,000 IU vitamin A and 75,000 IU vitamin D3 per ml.

Vitamin B-Complex-Plus For use in cattle, swine & sheep as a supplemental source of B-complex vitamins.

VITAMIN B12 1000MCG INJECTION - Each ml contains 1000 mcg cyanocobalamin- For use in vitamin B12 deficiency associated with cobalt deficiency in cattle and sheep, and for vitamin B12 deficiency associated with inadequate vitamin B12 intake or intestinal malabsorption in swine.

Volar Footrot Bacterin An aluminum hydroxide adjuvanted bacterin containing 2 strains of Fusobacterium necrophorum for use as an aid in the prevention and treatment of chronic Footrot in sheep & prevention of acute footrot in beef & dairy cattle. Dosage: Sheep-3 ml; Cattle-5 ml injected IM or subcut in the neck, repeat in 3-4 weeks. Booster annually or when endemic conditions exist or exposure is imminent. For best results, sheep should be receiving a free choice mineral supplement providing 40-80 mg zinc per head per day.