A roe deer fawn with a broken leg, just a few days old and with parts of its umbilical cord still on its body, was found by hunters on Greece’s Mount Paiko and has been taken to the Arcturos wildlife shelter for treatment. The tiny newborn fawn’s chances of survival in the woods with such an injury were believed to be extremely slim.
“Thomas,” as the tiny fawn has now been named, was first taken by the two hunters to a veterinarian in Giannitsa, who successfully treated the animal acting on the instruction of Veterinary Professor Natassa Komninou.
“Two hunters brought it to me. They had taken their dogs for practice on Mt. Paiko and the dogs found the roe deer. The hunters pulled their dogs away and saw that the baby deer was injured and that its mother was watching it from a distance, unable to help.
“They wrapped it in a blanket and brought me the animal, which, with this injury, had no chance to survive,” said veterinarian Yiannis Rintis.
The tiny, spotted fawn weighs only 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) and is approximately one week old. The deer’s broken leg has been set in a special cast and the vets in charge believe that it will heal quickly. The animal will be kept at the Aetos shelter in Florina and when it is healed and ready to go, it will be released and reintegrated back into the wild.
Source: AMNA