This morning while I was on my computer I looked out my window and noticed a baby deer eating some leaves from one of our rose bushes. I had the requisite "awww" reaction, watched it for a while, then went about my business. About a half hour later I was walking to the kitchen, and I saw the deer walking through another part of our yard, really close to the windows in our living room. I watched it again for a minute or so and noticed that it seemed to be walking really slow, in a kind of...weird manner. It's hard to describe, but the way it was walking seemed unnatural. I thought maybe it was sick, but then a while after that I saw it bounding across our lawn, so I figured it was fine.
Then I left the house, came back, showered, and when I walked into my room, I saw TWO baby deer lying outside my window, not sleeping, but just lying there. One of them was definitely foaming at the mouth (there was white stuff coming out of its mouth which would periodically drip down onto the ground), and the other has been staring off into space for probably 30 minutes now--I haven't seen it move at all.
Is there something I'm supposed to do about this? Is this normal behavior for baby deer? Animal control is closed now in my area, so is waiting until tomorrow to call them all I should do?
Dude. I am no deer expert, but that does not seem normal.
As for what you do, I really don't know. I guess at this point I'd want to take a closer look at them -- but not too close. That mouth-foam seems like something of which to be careful. But yeah I'd just go look at them and see if a closer surveyance made any course of action clearer.
It's quite possible that the deer is rabid. If animal control is unavailable, I'd advise staying away from the deer until you can do something about it.
yeah Call animal crontrol ASAP. foaming at the mouth is BAD!. Plus they'll probably get themselves hurt by being around humanity too much there. Baby deer really shouldn't be anywhere on their own so you really need them to get checked out and cared for.
If he died of rabies I should hardly think I'd be deserving of a ban. Nowhere did I indicate to do anything unsafe.
You don't need to be an animal expert to know to keep something warm and give it something to eat and drink. I fully admit that if the deer needs respiratory surgery that it's time for that one to go.
Thanks for your responses, I guess I'll just do what I was planning to do and wait until tomorrow comes. The one is still staring off into nowhere, and the other one looks like he's falling asleep.
On August 02 2011 11:57 emc wrote: deer are heavy, if you are gonna try and save them, good luck doing it yourself and how the hell are you going to transport two of them?
Maybe he could weight lift the deer until he gets buff enough to save the both. He gets buff and saves some animals. Win/win situation
Sometimes animals will foam at the mouth after eating (saliva bubbles). Are you sure they aren't just resting? But the weird walking seems strange, I guess just don't get bitten by them : D
Definitely sounds like they're rabid. Also there's no cure for rabies. If you get bit, you can get a post-exposure prophylaxis (a shot) before the virus takes over. Once you start showing symptoms = no cure. That's why pets are given the vaccine.
The only way to confirm that an animal (or human) is rabid is to kill it and take a sample of brain tissue and test it.
Again there is no cure for rabies. If you get bit by what you think might be a rabid animal go to the hospital ASAP and get the rabies prophylaxis. If you wait too long... you're dead.
EPT
