Sick doe with young kits

Last week my doe Four-Eyes went off her feed. I noticed her pellets had not been touched through the night. She has eleven, 17 day old kits, too young to be off mother's milk. Their eyes are open but not yet leaving the nest box. Their bellies were not as round as they've been but not flat like they are starving. Kits at this age will start chewing on things in their nest. I shaved off a little chinese elm and russian olive bark and put that with the kits. I also gathered a small handful of dry manure pellets from their mother and put them in the nest. From about 10 days, kits will chew on their mother's droppings inoculating them with the bacteria needed for good digestion. I added some BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds) and rolled-oats to her J-feeder.

The next day, Four-Eye's feed, even the BOSS & oats, still was not touched so I really got concerned. I picked her up and checked her breasts. The front set seemed a little warm and swollen. When I touched her front breasts she started shaking, ugh, mastitis. I've seen this problem a couple times in the past and figured her survival was probably about 50/50. I went out to Petsmart and bought some kitten formula and a small bottle. By evening mama was hunched up and shaking. I figured she'd be gone by morning. I put a few small elm and russian olive twigs by her but she wouldn't touch them. Ended up bottle feeding the babies that night.

Went out in the morning expecting a dead doe. She was sitting by the twigs and could see she'd chewed some bark off. Still looked in bad shape. I had Jordan collect the kits and we bottle fed them again. When we put them back in the nest I'd put some bark, small twigs, grass hay, pellets and rolled oats on the edge of the nest. I could see a few chew on a bit of the feed. By evening Four-eyes was eating small twigs and some pellets but appeared she only ate at most 1/4 cup, no where near enough to maintain weight. In the evening I used a mayonnaise lid to hold the kitten formula instead of the bottle. It took a while but ended up being easier than the bottle. Found some dandelion and fresh grass in the front yard and sprinkled that around the nest for the kits. Also, added another half dozen manure pellets.

Mama seems to be gradually improving. After 5 days the babies are starting to eat out of the J-feeder and I keep giving them greens and the small tree branches. Looks like everyone is going to make it.