Albino Fawn Courtesy of CCrawford

[Ross]

From Montana

It's probably a good thing this one stumbled into some humans - probably
would not last long in the wild.? pretty cool.


A very eventful day around here... A once in many lifetime experiences!
Mark saw this lil' feller run out in front of a car, thought it was a
lost baby goat. Stopped to get it, and WOW. A real Albino Whitetail
Deer. Just hours old, but doing fine. No Moma deer around. Another car
nearly hit it in front of Mark... Well,, he is THE neatest thing any of
us ever seen. And such a 'freak of nature', that only 1 in more than a
million are even born. He took his bottle of food, followed us around
the house, doing great. So, we called the Zoo & Fossil Rim, who were
both interested, but going to send him to a Rehab farm, at a vet that we
have never gotten along with... So, one of Dad's best friends is our
Game Warden. Kinda reluctantly, but, I called him and told him the deal.
He came right over, of course... and assured me that he wouldn't take it
to that vet, that he was going to 'go to higher levels' than that with
him.. So, he is gone now. We got a lot of pix, and something we will
never see again probably, so it was very cool. Maybe he will make it in
captivity somewhere and be appreciated. So rare... Sure wanted to keep
him tho. but, not the thing to do. And not LEGAL either ; But, here are
a couple of pix to show ya. He was snow white, pink eyes, ears, nose and
hooves. Kids called him POWDER. He was SO small. That is my shoe lying
beside him... WOW..how cool is that

 

[Christina L]

Bless his little

Bless his little

white (?) heart. How beautiful he is.

I hope and pray that the "little deer" will be treated well and live a long life in captivity. I have such a soft spot for animals. They steal MY heart every time.

Christina L.

 

[geebee]

I have to admit I would have had a very hard time giving this little fellow up - legal or not. What a beauty and how precious.

SO very happy he was saved.

 

[Granbonny]

I live on a Preserve with a herd of 200 deer..Saw my first Bambi yesterday.. Of this year..she/he had just been born..standing in road..We all/cars in front/back of me stopped to give it a chance to go back to mama.....Getting their legs together....So, cute.....but will grow up to eat my flowers. ..Bonnie

 

[Mary]

What a great story along with great pictures!

 

[Yaps]

aww..shes so cute, I d hate to give her up..

 

[bvdr]

What a great picture, Chris.

We rotate homes every month for our Tuesday AM ladies prayer group and one of the ladies, a widow in her 60's, had the head of an albino deer with its full set of antlers hanging on her living room wall. Her husband shot it many years ago. So, I guess they can grow up but it is very very very rare. I always have felt a little bad that her husband had shot it in the first place. Her husband died in OHS about 5 years ago in a surgery that was supposed to be fairly routine bypass.

 

[catwoman]

What beautiful photos of a gorgeous deer... hope he/she grows up to be an adult!
We used to see deer in our subdivision but there's been too much human activity west of our small subdivision. I took an access road home along Interstate 20 yesterday and saw a poor deer on the side of the road -- didn't get across in time.

I have several books on feline genetics and they do cover the albino gene. Very interesting reading about color genetics. There are actually 2 types of albinos, at least in cats, and I'm sure it carries true for all species:
c (the genetic code), the pure, pink-eyed albino.
and c with a superscript a, the blue-eyed albino.

The lack of color (or white, as we see it in the coat) is caused by recessive dilute color pigmentation discs being reduced in number and being farther apart on the hair shafts. That's a layperson's explanation.

Don't know if there are any health problems inherent in albinism. However, white-coated cats & dogs have higher rates of skin cancer.

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

off the subject of the deer

off the subject of the deer

Hey Marsha, speaking of cats, my daughter is stewing over whether or not to get her pure bred spotted snow bengal vaccinated for the feline leukemia. Vet says do it, breeder says it might kill her. Now I know there is a risk with any cat with any vaccine, but have you heard of pure bred cats having a weakened immune system? Wish the breeder hadn't scared her with this. She is so certain she will lose her Tiramisu if she allows the shot. Our cats are indoor, but our college age sons come home often enough and forget about the doors, that there is a strong possibility she will get outside sometime.

Just thought I'd get your thoughts on this. Shots are scheduled next week.

Thanks.

Peggy

 

[geebee]

Peggy,

I know you asked Marsha but I wanted to chime in also. Usually indoor cats are not vaccinated against feline leukemia. Even if the cat gets out, the chances of coming in contact with the virus is unlikely unless she gets lost for any length of time. If that happens, you could take the chance and have her vaccinated.

My vet considers the vaccine to not be worth the chance that the cats might react to it. He feels differently about outdoor cats but mine do not go out so there is no issue.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks, Gina, I will pass this along to my daughter. She is going on 13 and such a worry wart. Hopefully she will have her mind made up before we get to the Vet's office next week.

Are there any other cat fanciers out there that want to put their 2 cents worth in on this subject?

Peggy in Alaska

 

[catwoman]

I concur with Gina.

I used to vaccinate against FeLV. Did the vaccinations myself, using Fort Dodge product. Until 2 cats spiked very high fevers for 24 hours, needed fluids subQ. What happened was they mounted a reaction to some of the agents inthe vaccine. Since then I haven't vaccinated against FeLV. The FeLV test is extremely accurate, as opposed to the test for feline infectious peritonitis (it's actually a coronavirus titer test).

Very few cats get FeLV nowadays.
Soft tissue cancers have been diagnosed at injection sites. Culprit seems to be aluminum compounds added as agents to some vaccines, particularly FeLV ones, to help boost their effectiveness. The salts trigger an inflammation at the site, which can go on to become cancers. There have been several studies funded by Winn Feline Foundation on this.

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

Marsha:

Thanks for the reply. So, we could get her tested and if she tests negative, don't vaccinate. And if we can keep her inside till she is an adult, I think I read that adult cats have more resistance to the feline leukemia - the older they get.

I also read though that often the tests show positive when really the cat is not positive?

Oh, why did I let my daughter get a pure breed?!

Our other 2 cats have been vaccinated. And can't cats develop these tumors from not only FeLV but also any other injected vaccines?

Peggy

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

By the Way.............

By the Way.............

That FAWN is very very cute!

I'd want to keep it!

 

[Christina L]

We just had our very feral

We just had our very feral

cat, George, vaccinated for feline leukemia yesterday as a matter of fact. He threw up last night and is not acting like his ornery self today. The vet told us that would be the case after his immunization.

We captured George (he was Georgia until we got close to him and discovered he was most certainly a George!) two years ago after much trying. Our vet warned us that George may not do well in the house as he was used to marking his territory outside and that can be imprinted in a cat's brain.

Well, it was, in George's case. We have had nothing but trouble with him spraying in the house since that time. We HATE to put him outside, but we have several other cats to worry about (George is also aggressive toward our other male cat, Miles). Since George may be coming back inside from time-to-time (he is not sleeping outside as of yet - we put him out for bits at a time during the day and he stays close to home) our vet recommended we have him immunized for FeLV - to protect him and our indoor cats. Our vet says it is an awful way for a cat to die (as Pam has attested to in her post). The vet says they get it from direct saliva contact from an infected cat. We don't want to take the risk with George, so had him immunized.

I know cats can get tumors from immunizations - hence, we do not have our indoor cats immunized at all as they are indoors 24/7.

Christina L

 

[catwoman]

This is a hard call to make (vaccinating against feline leukemia). Like Peggy, I've always had indoor cats but have always had friends/family that come over and leave the screen open and away they go into the wild green yonder with me screaming and chasing them!

While I've never had a cat get a reaction, I've had one die from feline leukemia.

When our feline rescue groups receive an incoming cat, we have it tested for FeLV/FIV first. If negative, the cat is vaccinated and spayed/neutered if needed.
FeLV & FIV tests are pretty reliable. It's hard to find homes willing to accept a cat that's tested positive for FeLV or FIV, even though cats with those diseases could live for a while before showing symptoms. If we have a prospective owner without other cats and who knows what he/she is walking into, we would probably adopt the cat out. Otherwise, not.
But since the test is so reliable, breeders can screen outgoing and incoming cats and have been able to pretty much eliminate FeLV because of it.

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

Thanks, Christina, PamO and Marsha - It seems everyone has a different story and/or a different piece of advice on this vaccine. My daughter won't know what to do. But, I go back to this Breeder's comment that pure bred cats have impaired immune systems - have you heard of that?

And, I can't guarantee Tiramisu won't get out by accident, so she could come into contact with it.