The Sage of Christmas Joy
by Jamie White
On December 23, 2002, I received a call from a man that had a 5-month old doe deer that had broken her leg two days before. Her leg had a compound fracture at the cannon bone so the leg below was dangling. She would need surgery. She was very friendly. We discovered that she had been raised illegally and was imprinted on humans. She was fed an improper diet which contributed to her injury. On December 24 th I named her “Christmas Joy” since it was Christmas Eve and she was so sweet.
A couple of days later when I took her to Dr. Wellehan, at the University of Florida in Gainesville, he put five pins in the infected leg and recommended injectible antibiotics for six to eight weeks. Try giving injections to a 47-pound deer twice daily! Thank heavens for my husband, Pete, and my daughter, Leah. Pete would pick Joy up and Leah would offer her a treat, that’s when I would dive in and inject her before she could kick my teeth in! In addition to the antibiotics, I had to dress the pinned area several times a day with silver sulfadiazine, which she patiently let me do.
We persevered with the shots until she was checked and found to not have any medial nerve damage. It took a couple of visits to remove all the pins and make sure that the bone filled in. She had been confined to an eight by four foot stall bedded with two feet of straw for most of this time so she and I were both anxious for her to get out! When her leg was finally healed, we placed her in a 10 by 10 foot padded area. She was so excited! She jumped and bucked and ran as much as the small space allowed. Two weeks later, she was put in a spacious deer pen and she REALLY ran around!
She has been deemed unreleasable and now lives in a one-acre field that is triple fenced to keep predators out. She has been helping me raise many fawns since that time. Christmas Joy really turned out to be a wonderful blessing!
HOPE Wildlife Rehabilitation, Inc., is a non-profit all volunteer organization working to Help Our Precious Environment through rehabilitation and education of Florida's native wildlife.
HOPE Wildlife Rehabilitation currently has rehabbers that specialize in Florida native birds such as hawks, owls, falcons, water birds and song birds. The animals we rehabilitate are Florida native deer, opossum, all three squirrels (fox, grey and flying), raccoon, rabbit, bat, armadillo and baby skunk. We do not have the facilities to rehabilitate water mammals, wolves, coyote, panther, bobcat, bear, fox or adult skunk. We work with many other rehabbers though who are equipped to take these animals.
We are also always in need
of volunteers. We need people to
transport animals to veterinarians and rehabbers as
well as volunteers who are willing to obtain
a rehabilitation permit from the state and / or
federal government in order to work with
the animals directly by raising orphans and rehabilitating
injured birds and animals. We also need volunteers
to help with fundraising and nest box and
cage building. People who are interested
can phone direct at 352-628-9464 for more information
Your tax-deductible donations can be sent to:
HOPE Wildlife Rehabilitation, Inc.
PO Box 234
Crystal River, FL 34423
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