Happy ending for orphan

Doomed fawn “Bambi” rescued by family

Five-year-old Lukas has become close friends with "Bambi"(Bild: zVg)

Despite an extremely negative prognosis, a family from the Innviertel region were able to successfully raise a critically exhausted fawn at home with goat's milk. The baby deer had been unable to move for weeks and had to be fed with a bottle every two hours. The family's children in particular showed tireless commitment.

The story of little "Bambi" had a happy ending, although nobody apart from the Feichtenschlager family from Höhnhart really believed it.

"The hunters estimated its life expectancy at zero percent, it was actually on the verge of dying," says father Stefan Feichtenschlager. But by joining forces, he, his wife Christine (40), grandmother Kathi (72) and their children Anna (10), Lisa (8) and Lukas (5) managed to save the fawn. The family fought tirelessly for its life.

Eight-year-old Lisa gives "Bambi" a bottle of diluted goat's milk(Bild: zVg)

It was the children who saw the completely exhausted and already immobile fawn lying on their parents' land on May 11. "It was no more than two days old, its mother had probably been killed in traffic," recalls dad Stefan.

Ten-year-old Anna feeding the critically exhausted fawn(Bild: zVg)

Hunter gave tips
Despite the hopeless prognosis, the family decided to try to nurse the baby deer back to health. "We had no idea ourselves what exactly to do, but hunter Dietmar Jung kept giving us valuable tips."

The little one was christened "Bambi" and fed goat's milk for months. "We bottle-fed it every two hours from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day."

"Bambi" is out of danger(Bild: zVg)

In the first week, the little deer couldn't get up at all, showed no movement, just a quiet whimper. The fawn's health was only slowly improving, and after four weeks it was still not out of the woods. "But it fought bravely. I prepared a box filled with forest floor for it so that it could grow up in a species-appropriate way."

GPS tracker
Bambi now lives in the garden and is only fed once a day. It will soon be fitted with a GPS tracker and the garden gate will then be opened. But dad Stefan sees this not only with a smile, but also with a tear: "It will certainly be very hard, especially for our Lukas, when his beloved fawn is suddenly no longer there."