Brownwood Animal Control officers respond to all kinds of calls daily, not all of which are pleasant. However on Tuesday, they were able to help save deer with a medical problem.
Many times when animal control gets called to deal with a deer, it is often because they have been either hit by a car or gotten tangled in a fence, which often results in the animal having to be put down due to unsurvivable injuries. This was not the case on Tuesday, according to Animal Control officer Judy Williams.
“We get called to help deer often, usually in fences, and we often have to put them down because of injuries like a broken pelvis,” said Williams. “But this time we had a success story.”
Williams explained that a doe with a large growth on her head had been sighted several times recently near the 3M Credit Union. The doe was beginning to look malnutrition and was getting to the point of being nearly “skin and bones,” according to Williams. She stated that animal control and others had been watching the doe and trying to figure out a way to help her, knowing that if they approached her, there was a large possibility she would run and possibly be struck by a car, due to the heavy traffic in the area.
According to Williams, another animal control officer Amy Abernathy was able to tranquilize the deer, then Williams and Abernathy loaded her into a vehicle for transport. The officers spoke with a local wildlife rehabilitation expert who agreed to help nurse the animal back to health. The wildlife rehabilitator Vicki Gamill advised that the doe should be taken to a veterinarian to see what the growth was and seek treatment, so the deer was taken to local veterinarian Fritz Speck who lanced the growth successfully.
Williams and Abernathy were excited to be able to be involved in helping the deer.
“It’s kind of neat we got to do this and were able to help,” said Williams.
Afterward, the doe was released to Gamill for rehabilitation. Williams stated that the doe is healing; however, she is still not eating adequately, but they hope that this will improve soon.
Pictured above is the deer before the growth was treated. Below is a photo of her as she was loaded for into the vehicle for transport.
