Thursday, July 23, 2009

Hansel

Hansel's antlers continued to give him trouble in the days following his accident. We expected them to fall off quite quickly but it soon became clear that that was not going to happen. On Tuesday we examined him and it was clear that his condition was very grave indeed; he hadn't broken the actual antlers but the pedicle below them (the pedicle is the part of his skull that supports the antlers).

He was put down later that evening.

We will miss this mischievious, handsome buck very much indeed.

Monday, July 13, 2009

New arrivals

Firstly I would like to say thank you to the children of Coads Green Primary School who have named Carmen’s cubs for us. The smaller of the two (a female?) will be called Coady and the larger one (a male?) will be called Kernow. I’ve just been trying the names out with the cubs and they seem to like them already.

Since last writing (too long I know) we have had several new arrivals; two new Fallow Deer fawns, one now three weeks old and the other only a few days. Both are doing very well.

The same cannot be said for their father, Hansel. He has been growing what looked like a superb set of antlers although they were less than half grown and still covered in velvet. Alas no longer; on Saturday night he seems to have tried them out on something a lot bigger and tougher than his antlers were (at the early stages of growth antlers are quite fragile and only become useful weapons when the velvet has dropped off and the bone has had a chance to dry out). The result is that he has badly damaged both of them and they now dangle around the sides of his head and make him look like a miniature moose. They may now dry up and drop off or continue to grow in a deformed shape, we’ll have to wait and see. It’s not uncommon for young bucks to do this and they soon learn not to mess with their antlers until they are properly grown. Hopefully he has learnt his lesson.

Sonny (one of our Asian Short Clawed bitches) continues to put on weight and appear pregnant but as yet no babies have appeared. She is eleven years old and we are a bit worried that this, being her first (and rather surprising) pregnancy, will be complicated. We are watching her carefully and crossing our fingers for her.

On Friday 26th June we took a phone call early in the morning; a British Otter cub had been found a few miles from us near a village called Week St. Mary. We went to see what we could do and when we arrived saw a very small, thin and sorry looking little male cub. His eyes were full of dried mucus and barely open. We guessed his age at just over 5 weeks. We had taken our first aid kit with us and gave him some fluids there and then. His eyes immediately began to weep and in less than a minute he was able to open them properly and look back at us with deep blue, frightened eyes. He was down but not out.

Tor, as we have named him, was obviously dehydrated and took fluids readily. He had been found high on a hill with no obvious water course nearby and no explanation as to why he was there.

We took him home and weighed him, 700 grams, a real lightweight. Over the next few days his life really did hang in the balance. Visits to the vet confirmed he had various infections and muscular difficulties on his right side. He was fed from a syringe every hour and a half, day and night. Some days were good and some bad as his body fought for survival.

Twelve days after taking him in he appeared a little brighter than usual and since then he has forged ahead really well. He still has some problems to overcome and he isn’t out of the woods yet but we are beginning to get just the tiniest bit more optimistic. Weaning has begun and that means much longer periods between feeds (thank goodness). We have also introduced him to water which he seems to like as long as it’s nice and warm and only an inch deep. He might be an otter but he’s certainly not very aquatic yet!

Thanks to Nicola and Richard for finding Tor and doing something about it in time to save him.