Found a baby deer?  Do not touch it! Fawns are often left to nap by day while mom grazes and forages for food.

If you’re the one stumbling upon the deer, whether on your property or while hiking, etc., your nature instinct is to care for it. We get it. Every urge in us is to pet and love the helpless fawn. We want to pick it up, take it home and feed it.

However, unless the baby deer is crying or hurt, or the mother is obviously injured or deceased, the fawn should not be touched. Instead, quietly leave the area, only to return at day’s end or the following day, just to be sure it is not still there and in need of help.

“The only time a fawn should be picked up and brought to NAR is if it is obviously ill or injured.”
~NativeAnimalRescue.org

Baby Deer Found? Do not Touch the Fawn

Fawns are born scent-free and have white camouflage spots which protect them from predators. The doe continues to keep her babies scent free by consuming her fawns urine and droppings.
~NativeAnimalRescue.org

Mother deer usually leave their fawns for up to 12 hours per day to forage for food. Since newborn fawns are typically too weak to keep up with their moms for the first few weeks of life, they rest in vegetation while she’s gone.
~TheDoDo.com

Mother deer will stay away from the fawns to avoid leading predators to their young. Does return at dawn and dusk to feed and/or move their young.
~WildLifeCenter.org

A Baby Deer Rescue – This Fawn Was in Great Distress

We learned a hard lesson on this baby deer. We should have searched for it sooner.

This first video is shorter, or, the Part 2 video basically sums up the entire experience.

Baby Deer, Near Death, Responds to TLC and Nourishment

Here’s how we treated this sick and emaciated baby deer.

Treatment for Sick Baby Deer

• Called wildlife rescue –
  • they couldn’t take deer currently due to a contagious deer disease afflicting dee a few counties away
  • advised us to keep it comfortable as best we could and be a loving presence as it dies

So we…

• Placed him on a comfortable bed
• Fed water via a dropper
  • he didn’t drink at first; was too weak
  • we held his head up to so the water would flow down his throat by gravity
  • that worked and he began to swallow
  • we kept giving water, then went to store to get goats milk and baby bottle
• Worked on removing ticks –
  • for our protection and cleanliness
  • his comfort and health
  • removed ticks with tweezers, (there were tons of really tiny ticks; most not inflated
  • dropped ticks into a jar with alcohol in it, to kill the ticks and keep the tweezers sterilized
  • washed towels, bedding and clothing well after this to avoid risk of any loose strays
• Got goats milk and baby bottle from store
  • heated goats milk until warm
  • Fed goats milk from bottle
    • had to squirt it into mouth at first
    • hold head up to mimic how they suckle from their mothers
    • eventually, baby started suckling by itself, with eyes closed deep satisfaction

Eventually, the fawn started suckling by itself, with eyes closed in deep satisfaction as the milk began to coat his starving belly with nourishment.

Wildlife Rescue Stories

We were really glad to learn how to handle (or not handle), the baby deer, because we’re certainly quick to try to help animal in distress. We’ve rescued plenty of wildlife, especially birds like this rescued cardinal that hit our window, or this Golden crowned kinglet.

Check this out if you need good natural deer repellents.

Herd of Deer – See Female Deer Challenge the Videographer

Or this video treat to see and hear a deer challenging the videographer who’s staying at our Pilot Mountain, NC, rental cabin!