Wildlife Officials Credit Edmond Man For Saving Baby Fawn

A picture of a newborn fawn covered with ticks swept across social media Wednesday, moments after it was rescued by an Edmond man. Now she is showing signs of improvement as she recovers at the Wildcare Foundation in Noble.

The week old baby fawn covered in thousands of ticks across her body those have now been removed thanks to the volunteers at Wildcare. But she still has a long road of recovery ahead of her.

“The fawn came in very critical obviously covered in ticks. The eyes very badly infected,” said Rondi Large, Director of Wildcare Foundation.

Her eyes remain closed as she battles multiple infections, but the week-old fawn shows signs she's a fighter as she wobbles around on her new legs.

An Edmond man found her Wednesday morning abandoned and covered in ticks. By the afternoon she had a new home at Wildcare Oklahoma where volunteers are working to nurse her back to health.

“She's recovering well. She's on antibiotics all the ticks have been removed. She's being treated for tick borne diseases,” said Large.  

The ticks may be gone, but the fawn still needs lots of care to keeps all of her wounds clean to prevent further infection. And to build up her strength she's fed deer milk. Large believes the fawn was rescued just in time.

“The little fawn wouldn't have made it through the night would be my prediction. She was in pretty bad shape,” she said.

While it's not uncommon for deer to pick up ticks, the spring rains have made the problem worse.

“With the year like we are having this year with the high tick number and the fawns going through the tall glasses where if we hiked around we would get ticks on us. That's where they live. They are picking up ticks like crazy,” said Large.

This little fawn and the others she's staying with are in good hands recuperating with the love and care from volunteers.

The goal at Wildcare is to treat the injured animals and then release them back into their natural habitat. Large expects the fawn will be there until next spring.

Learn more about Wildcare and how you can donate.