It’s touch and go for an orphaned moose calf found more than a week ago in Industry by a deer hunter. Rescuers report the young cow is in critical condition after a week of electrolytes, fluids, eight quarts of formula daily and lots of hope.

“She may not make it,” said Ann Rivers, a wildlife rehabilitator from Bar Harbor who is taking care of the orphan. As of Sunday evening, “She’s starving and she has a very heavy parasite load. She’s extremely weak,” Rivers said.

Rivers, director of Acadia Wildlife Foundation, said the young moose stands more than 4 feet tall and weighs between 150 and 200 pounds. She’s nursing the animal with specialized formula close in composition to moose milk. She said the calf was likely born during the summer, rather than in the spring when most moose are calved.

Rivers said she bases this belief on the animal’s small size and the fact that she is still nursing and unsure about solid foods. Rivers is a wildlife rehabilitater licensed by the state and the federal government. She is not a vet.

The 125-mile journey to Rivers’ doorstep started more than a week ago when the calf was spotted by a deer hunter. Harold Mason of Industry said he came across the calf in distress while hunting on Saturday, Nov. 15, on family property just off Route 43 in Industry. He told his wife, Jean, who contacted Donna Cote, a wildlife rehabilitater in New Sharon.

Cote works with mammals under 50 pounds and attempted to contact experienced large mammal handlers to assess the moose calf’s situation. When no handler responded within 24 hours, Jean Mason contacted Cote again to report that the moose was getting weaker.

Cote went to check on the animal and recognized it apparently still needed its mother to survive. Cote and the Masons kept vigil over the calf until late Sunday, Nov. 16, to ensure that the mother moose wasn’t foraging close by and would return.

Harold Mason and his brother, John, navigated the moose about a quarter mile out of the woods with flashlights. Arlene and Bob Gavoni, owners of Knowlton Corner Farm in Farmington, arrived with their horse trailer to take the moose to Cote’s rehab facility, where Cote administered intravenous fluids to it.

Cote then contacted Rivers, who arranged to have the calf brought to her Bar Harbor center for care and possible release in the spring.

Sun Journal reporter Andie Hannon contributed to this story.