Plasma and blood volumes of maternally reared, captive black-tailed deer fawns

Plasma and blood volumes determined by the indocyanine green and plasma-hematocrit methods increased curvilinearly as maternally reared black-tailed deer (5F, 5M) grew in body mass from 3.8 to 34.3 kg. Expressed on a weight-relative basis, however, the volumes of both sexes declined curvilinearly with growth. The volumes of blood and cell but not plasma were significantly larger in males than females. Although these fawns were comparable to young of other species of Cervidae in weight-specific blood volumes, they exceeded by 29% or more than 66 ml/kg body mass that characterizes adult mammals of other species.