Sweetie’s road to recovery
The eyes are the windows to the soul … meet Sweetie a white tail deer and resident of SC CARES.
Sweetie came to us in 2007 as a 4 pound fawn. We received a call that this poor baby had gotten her leg wedged in the roots of a rotting tree while following her mom at the edge of a neighborhood. The family black lab was doing his job by barking to alert his humans that someone was there, but for Sweetie this was horrifying. The gentle man was able to pull her from the tree roots but her back leg was mangled. When she got to me, her heart was racing and her breathing was way too rapid. I feared I would lose her to a heart attack before we could even get her to the vet. Thankfully I kept Bach’s Rescue Remedy in my purse and began to administer some drops while holding her securely and whispering that she was alright. To use the term “skittish” doesn’t begin to describe what she must have felt. Thankfully she began to calm down and in just a few days seemed to enjoy being touched and cared for by humans.
After a visit to the vet and X-rays, it was determined that no bones were broken but the tendons in the leg were twisted and we weren’t sure they could be repaired. We spent a month trying to massage the leg to straighten it and even had a chiropractor work on her several times, but to no avail. Her leg had to be amputated. Our vet discussed with us that the anesthesia for deer was very tricky — too much and she may not wake up, too little and she would feel what was happening. Once again we were very fortunate and Sweetie made it through in style! She healed very quickly with no episodes and was learning to walk on her remaining back leg the very next day.
Over time her spine turned just a little to adjust her body so that the one back leg was centered to carry her weight and she gets around great! Sweetie is an amazing example of how well animals adapt to life’s changes. Sweetie is now 8 years old and resides with Dennis and Missy, two other non-releasable deer. Deer, especially in captivity away from cars and hunters, can live up to 20 years so we look forward to seeing her beautiful face for a long time to come. I once had someone ask me why we would work so hard to save a deer when they are so overpopulated. My reply was “if you have to ask then I probably couldn’t explain it to you.” To look into this creature’s eyes and not help her would be my query. This is an example of how disconnected some humans are from the creatures we share this planet with. The animals share feelings of fear, pain, comfort, happiness and above all the will to live!
Let us bring in the New Year with open hearts and strive to truly find “Peace on this Earth” To visit Sweetie and the rest of the SC CARES family please contact us through www.sc-cares.org Support our mission @ http://sc-cares.org/?p=support
This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Sweetie’s road to recovery."