Broken shoulders?

[woody]

Here's one I bet you didn't hear yet!! On Sunday there was a bad car accident down the road from our deer pens. The poor young girl needed to be cut out of her car and life-flighted to the hospital. Where do you think they landed the helicopter? Yes... 30 feet from our pens!!!:eek: The whole herd went absolutely crazy bonkers when the helicopter circled, landed and took off. Running out of control and blasting into the fence!!! We thought we came out of it OK with minor grief, but one of our does (who has a buck and a doe fawn one month old) seems to have two broken front legs. She hops around on her back legs like a kangaroo. Her legs move at the elbow but when she puts her weight on them she collapses. I think she has problems up in her shoulders. She is still very alert and she is still eating and drinking. She also feeds her fawns. What can we do for her? I'm calling our vet now but I thought someone might have some insight or suggestions. I realize you can't really say with out an examination, and that will be later today, but has anyone ever run into this sort of thing? PS. Don't know how the young girl faired out.:( Hope she's gonna be OK.

[dcwhitetails]

Woody i dont see much you can do. boy that some luck, hope the girl is ok also. i think bout all you can do is, maybe just make life as comfartyable as possible, maybe some bannamine will help.and hope for best,maybe small er pen limit her movement, closer to water and feed,and hope she heals for she makes it worse, let us know how it goes, many have done well with broken legs and busted shoulders,takes time.Dc (comfortable),

[woody]

Thanks DC. I just talked to my vet and she said we can put some Banamine(?) in a dart and shoot her with it to maybe make her comfortable. My partner said he actually watched her eat, drink and feed her fawns so she is a fighter. Man, we can't hit the lottery for millions but we can have a helicopter land on our pens!!!!! What the hell kinda luck is that?

[IndependenceRanch]

I spoke once with the department in charge of the flight for life in our area. This is a good reminder to do it again. I know a persons life is worth more than a herd of deer, but there had to be other places they could have landed.
Good luck with her. Sounds like a really bad deal.

[Spiderman]

I knew a guy that had the National Guard flying over his deer and elk all the time when they went for a spin . He was old and finally shot AT the helicopter with a 30/30 and had two suits on his door step the next morning....he told them he would do it again , so they needed to lock him up or stop flying over his place.....they put a no -fly zone over his place after that. Jim

[Buckskin]

We've had the national guard helicopter circle our place before taking a look. Deer don't like helicopters. I was wondering what kind of a lead your old friend used on that helicopter? About like a high flying goose I bet. Rick

[Mitch P]

They had a hot air balloon club here in Ohio a year or so ago that flew too low over a few amish farms and caused quite a bit of horn damage. They have now set up a program and have charted deer farms and they stay high over the farms. I know the burners are loud but a chopper has to be unreal. Sorry about your mishap Woody. Let`s just pray that your mishap saved a young lady`s life.

As far as your doe goes I would try and give her and her babies a pen alone so she isn`t bothered by others and give her time to heal. The Banamine will help with the inflamation and the pain. Good luck

[Spiderman]

A real problem here is airplanes doing crop spraying . I had them a few years ago and they dived down beside my pens and on the return trip did a straight up move at full throttle . Deer went crazy. The farmer said he has to make a living and didn't give notice to residences near the spraying like he should have. I lucked out and had no real damage but know of other Iowa deer farmers who have over the years. Jim

[Rainer]

We had three helecopters that were hovering at about 500 feet last year over our pens
they stayed for about 10 minutes or so, never thought about shooting at them, see we are about 7 miles from Crawford Texas and one of them had a big red white and blue seal
on the side of it, but I did git a wave out of it. sorry about the deer, hope the girl is alright.

[woody]

Thanks to all for the support. Yes there was no question about letting them land, I mean gosh, what if that was your kid? I know that NO deer is worth a persons life, it's just....dang why did it have to be right there?!!? I guess we can be glad that none of the bucks damaged any of their antlers. (Whew) One of the firefighters there said if we had any damage to the deer that the persons insurance should pay for it but I'm not sure about that. Even so, maybe if it was a breeder buck we'd look into it, but i guess that poor girl has enough to worry about. (If she's still alive) I didn't see anything in the paper about it. I guess if she winds up being OK that is good enough. We'll try to do all we can for our doe and hope to God she's tough enough to pull through. One question though, being the fawns are a month old, if she dies do you think they would take to the bottle?

[PaintedMeadowsBJs]

It may be hard you can do it...Every deer is different.
You may have to let her drink from a dish...just make sure not to leave it...It spoils quick...
She should be drinking water with her mom by now if you have a place low enough...If not... I would put low dishes in now, so she can see mom drink...get her prepared for the worst.
If she won't drink on her own ...if she calms enough to suck you finger, but not the nipple(cause it's cold)...Let her suck your finger and take it to the dish of milk.

Hope everybody involved in the ordeal is OK...All will be included in my prayers.
If I'm not mistaken you've had a rough string of luck...It's bound to get better;)

[Robbie]

Woody - couple of things. Had lifeflight land 2 choppers on the road in front of my gate last year, and the news choppers hovered over our pens trying to cover the story. Nightmare, but we came out OK, luckily.

As for your fawns, we lost a doe last year with 3 week old babies. We decided not to try and get them on the bottle that late, they stole milk from every doe in the pen, and at weaning, were every bit as big as the other fawns. They turned out pretty tame, too, because it was some of my super tame and hand raised does that took care of them.

Good luck, and prayers for the girl.

[Buckskin]

Woody, you sure have had a time of it. Hopefully you will look back at this year and be able to encourage another newbie having a string of bad luck someday here on the deer farmer that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Heres hoping things get better soon. Rick

[H&S Whitetails]

We had a doe die last year that had 4 week old twin buck fawns. We left them alone and they made it just fine they werent even any smaller than the other fawns come fall. They cried alot for a day or two but after that you would almost always see them out eating grass or at the feeder. I am not sure if they snuck a little milk from another doe or not I never saw them but I bet they probably did. We werent sure if it was the right thing to do at the time but it worked out for us.

[Whitetail Sanctuary]

hey woody hope every thing turns out ok for your doe and the girl. last year we had a helicopter land on south side of our deer pens and about 10 sherrif,hwy ptrl,ambulance,roll in on the north and east side of our deer pens.we weren't home at the time had gone to help edwin ropp when maxin died.seems guy's here to cut hay fell off tractor and it went thru cow fence an hung up about 3' from going thru my fawn pens got lucky but what a surprise when the sheriff a good friend of mine called and asked why my deer were acting so CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOPE ALL GOES WELL FOR ALL!!

[woody]

Hey everyone. Thank you all sooo much for the support. It does seem like it's not worth it sometimes but as I said before, with a little advice, support, help and consoling from all you nice people, it gives one the strength to keep at it. I can't thank you all enough. Now a nice little update! After a shot of Benamine last night, she is standing on her front legs this morning!!! She isn't moving very well (like an old man with a walker) but she IS putting some weight on her legs. (BIG SIGH) Also, it was in the paper last night that the girl had massive internal injuries and bleeding. She's in really rough shape but she's not dead. (GOOD thing) Looks like she has a bit of a long road but sounds like she'll be OK. Thank the Lord!! Hopefully it will turn out that all this has just been a BIG speed-bump down that long road of life and things will straighten themselves out. (Fingers crossed)

[wvdeerman]

Great to hear some GOOD news for a change. Not just about this thread but just things in general.

In any case the girl is still fighting for her life and that is good. The doe is holding her weight and that is good. The fawns should be ok. We had a doe with twins two years ago and for some reason she got really sick. I had to make a choice to seperate her from her fawns, because she was so weak the fawns were wearing her down more and killing her. We put momma in a pen by herself and treated her for about a week. She got better. In the mean time the fawns stole milk from the other does and ate leaves, grain and grass to survive. While momma was recovering her milk dried up. Would you beleive that when we put her back in the general population, she went right back to her fawns and her milk came back. Within a week she was nursing again.

Gotta have faith !! God Bless !!

[allenb]

Hang in there Woody things may be turning around. Good news on the doe, hopefully she just needs time to heal. I am praying for the girl also. Good Luck. Allen

[Arrowhead Whitetails]

Woody, sounds like they both may make it. Have you tried any dexasone with the banamine? It may help her out. good luck

[chiere]

Can deer handle bute? Both banamine and bute are NSAIDs, banamine is just stronger. If they can handle it, buy a canister of powdered bute from the vet and dose her in her feed twice a day, (if she will eat it, =-D I have to hide it in molasses to get it into the horses,...) The pain relief plus the anti-inflammatory of the bute would have to be beneficial. Dose her for about a week,...

[Robbie]

I don't think bute is good for ruminents. Banamine is available in a paste, ask your vet. Mix some with whatever you think she will eat.

[Scott Heinrich]

Woody,
If the doe is tame enough, you can put her in a sling and let her have some rest. If they were hitting the fence, then the damage is possibly neurological. A good dose of steroids would certainly help, and regardless of her problem wouldnt hurt.

[woody]

Here's where we stand. After three shots of the banamine (it's all we got) over the course of a few days, she is looking 100 times better. She is walking around and can go pretty well. She is eating, drinking and feeding her fawns. That said, you can tell she is still pretty sore and doesn't move fast at all. Still kinda roughed up but from then until now I'm real happy with her progress. She moves all over the pen and when she lies down she does it on her own power. (Not just collapsing like she did) She still gimps off her one leg but I think we're gonna be OK. We'll keep watching her an see what the vet says at the end of the week. Thanks a million to all who gave advice and support!

[LaJean]

Woody,
As a former insurance agent I can tell you that the person responsible for the accident would be considered liable for damages to your stock. It falls under the damage to property of others clauses of their policies. You could charge their insurance for the vet bills, meds, etc.

Laura - LaJean Whitetails
Kansas

[Robbie]

Woody - do you have an update? I am really curious about her progress.

[woody]

Haven't had time to be on here much. Sorry. Here's the update. If you didn't know she was hurt, you wouldn't know she was hurt! Really. She is about 95% from what we can tell. She runs with the rest of the herd and looks healthy. She still has a small "gimp" in her walk, but it doesn't seem to bother her at all. Sometimes they amaze me on how they can heal compared to sometimes how easy they can die!:D Anyway, all seems well for now. Knock on wood. PS. Robbie, the target fawn paste worked great. The fawn is doing good and thanks for asking how things are going.

[Robbie]

That is great news. I am really glad things are looking up.