The evening of Sunday, June 11, 2000 began with fear, pain and death. Along U.S. 20, a busy highway in northern Elkhart County, IN, a white-tailed deer and her days old fawn left the woods and attempted to cross the road. Both doe and fawn were struck by a passing vehicle. The doe died immediately. The infant deer was left dazed, frightened and wounded next to her mother's body.
Fortunately, a passing motorist called Heartland Rehabilitation. Director Nancy Cobb and a host of volunteers provide care for wounded and orphaned wildlife in our community. Early summer is a "wildly" busy time for Nancy as she and her staff bottle feed, medicate, and nurse hundreds of orphaned animal infants of all types and sizes. The goal of Heartland Rehabilitation is to re-introduce their patients into the natural environment as soon as possible.
After receiving word of the accident, the fawn was found and transported to Heartland. First aid and TLC was provided. Fortunately, the fawn was immediately willing to nurse artificial milk and fluids, thus preserving strength and hydration status.
On Monday morning, the fawn was examined at Maplecrest Animal Hospital. Injuries included multiple scrapes, a skin laceration on the left front leg and an unstable fracture of the left foreleg below the elbow. Remarkably, heart and lung function was normal and the fawn's mental status was great! With proper care and a little luck there was a good chance of successful treatment for our 3-5 day old patient.
The deer was
anesthetized using isoflurane, an inhalant gas anesthetic. The first job
was to thoroughly clean and suture the laceration on the left front leg.
Because of the proximity of this cut to the fracture, there was strong concern
that the fracture site may have already become infected. After repairing
the skin wound, attention was focused on the fracture. Gentle extended
manipulation of the leg was used to shift the fractured bone pieces back into a
normal position and a fiberglass cast was applied to the leg. As soon as
the cast had hardened, we made two full length cuts in the cast, creating two
halves. The halves were then snuggly reapplied to the leg. After an
uneventful recovery from anesthesia, the little white-tail went home with Mrs.
Cobb. Our hope was to leave the leg casted for four weeks or longer.
White-tailed deer can be very difficult patients to rehabilitate. They are gentle, inquisitive creatures but by nature have a very dramatic flight-response to any stressful stimulus. They are instinctively afraid of humans. As a result, it is difficult to predict how a young deer will respond to daily interaction with handlers. On the one hand, artificial milk and medications must be given several times daily and external wounds and castings must be monitored. On the other hand, in hopes of a successful release to the wild in the future, human interactions must be minimized so that protective instincts are preserved.
The condition of our patient, now named "Carmen"
by the volunteers at Heartland, progressed nicely. One week after initial
treatment, she was brought back to Maplecrest for a recheck. Now stronger,
she struggled vigorously in the strange hospital environment. To prevent
self injury, we again anesthetized Carmen to allow evaluation of her
wounds. The cast halves were easily removed. The laceration was
healing quickly. The fracture site also appeared stable. There was
no evidence of infection! The cast was re-applied to the leg and Carmen
was sent home to Heartland to continue her recuperation.
The next few weeks went well. Carmen "wore" the cast well and continued to eat and grow. It was tragic that the accident occurred at such a young age. However, the fact that she was only a few days old probably made her acceptance of human interaction an easier transition. Once stronger, Carmen was transferred to an outdoor wooded enclosure. This area is shared with four to five other orphaned fawns in varying stages of rehabilitation. Interaction with deer now will make re-introduction to the wild at a later date much easier.
About five weeks after the accident, Carmen's cast was
removed from her left front leg. Muscles and joints were stiff from the
extended immobilization. The fracture bone had healed firmly with a slight
curvature. Bone healing was not perfect but would be very functional!
Today, Carmen continues to grow with her orphaned companions at Heartland Rehabilitation. With each passing day, the leg has strengthened and the flexibility of joints and muscles improved. She is able to run and kick her heels with the best of them!
If all goes well, Mrs. Cobb and her staff will say goodbye to Carmen in January 2001. (After hunting season is over.) She will be released into the surrounding woodlands with the opportunity for a long life.