I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have today off.
Yesterday was the horrifying climax to a hellish weekend at the zoo. Saturday we had an influx of baby/injured/etc animals that just overwhelmed us..... especially when staffed with only three keepers (as technically there are five areas, but oh no, the weekend keepers can handle it........ *dry look*). But we survived it..... even with a bloated goat of which we knew nothing about bloating but it seems like we saved her a lot of discomfort.
Yesterday, though...... *just sighs, shaking head*
I was in the raccoon enclosure playing with Stevie and Taz of previous entries, closing up and getting ready to head over to the mammal round. Geographically (I think that's the word, if not, I dno't care at this point) the jeuvenile raccoon enclosure is across the mammal backlot from the deer, mammal round, coyotes and black bears. As I was locking the gait I heard this strange snort/huff/grunt..... almost a belch.... sound and looked around to check it out. Round the corner and into the deer yard I can see Mikey, one of our bucks, caught in a bucket....... his head is pinned in by an antler hooked beneath the bucket handle to where he's wearing it like a feedbag.
The bucket was still attached to the fence 2 1/2 feet off the ground.
Mikey was on the ground.
Strangling.
Screaming.
Somehow, I'm not even sure how I did it, but I calmly called over the radio for one of the keepers (the other, as we were staffed with three again, was heading out to lunch because she had to run an errand for the zoo) to come assist me in the deer yard ASAP. The girl that was heading to lunch is the only one who heard me, and she came over as I explained that Mikey is caught in a bucket, the curator and head mammal keeper need to be called. It took a few minutes for people to realize it was an emergency I was so unnaturally calm. I don't remember being so. The girl that I called, however, never picked up the signal. Her radio wasn't working.
Now, we aren't allowed to go into the pen with the male deer. We've two. One has already put a keeper (ironically, the one I called at first) into the hospital. But when the girl, V (and a twit) got there she ran into the pen without thinking. Here comes our hero with a rake to hold Jerimiah off..... who is terrified, and if he panics..... will he try to kill Mikey for causing noise and attracting a predator? Will he try to kill us and protect his herdmate? Will he simply run away?
I felt really stupid holding that rake as Mikey is behind me choking to death. V kept trying to lift the bucket up enough to unlatch it and let him free (also a suggestion by the curator who giftshop had on the phone), so he could not only breath, but shake it off himself (Mikey was raised by his parents after a zoo birth, sadly, it has made him a bit of a spazz around humans)..... without us tackling him and possibly hurting him more, or getting a razor sharp hook in the face while he struggles as he was throwing himself around with amazing strength. It also takes three keepers to hold down a 120 pound deer, and this was the smallest and weakest female of the herd.
After two failed tries, I just reached around the pole, and around V, and helped her lift..... which turned into lifting by myself, with one hand, braced against a splinterly telephone pole, with struggling deer on one end, the threatening rake in the other hand....... not fun, but adrenaline does incredible things *chuckles softly*
He got free...... but the bucket was still on his head. As we watched him struggle, I was sure he was going to break a slender leg throwing himself around in such a way.... and he was also to the point he had to stop struggling for periods because he was overheating and dehydrated..... from what I could see at the time it also looked as if he had vomited in the bucket.
I didn't even know deer could vomit.
He got stuck on the chainlink fence that separates the main yard from the smaller grass pen in which the females had been in for the night (we keep them separate because Mikey still wants to kill our year old fawn, waiting until she's big enough to defend herself). Blossom, our eldest, and Mikeys mom, started hoofing at him through the fence. V thought she was trying to hurt him. I knew she was trying to help get the bucket off. She started licking him, too.
After pulling free, whatever she did must have helped, because he flung the bucket off.
Shaken, exhausted, dehydrated, terrified, fur missing in chunks, abrasions over most of his body, lacerations beneath his ears, over his antlers, between them, bleeding antlers, much of the velvet torn off....... possible broken tail...... but alive.
Got him into a pen by himself, in the shade, with misters and water....... and he seemed fine at closing yesterday, but.....
(cont'd)