I feel your pain.
I would make sure to get the cage up and just leave be till next spring. Once the tree starts leafing out you can tell how much damage was really done. Also the initial health of the tree and how stressed it gets over the winter dormancy period will either help or hinder things.
I finally put up a fence to keep the marauders out!
Flora

Sorry about the plum tree - that would be so disappointing. Rabbits eat the lower trunks of my young trees if I don't wrap them or cage them. Last year I made a big chicken wire "pen" that enclosed all my small arborvitae, some shrubs and a couple of trees instead of doing them individually. I still saw rabbit droppings in the snow around the choke cherries!

As Flora said, just have to wait and see about your plum tree. Good luck.

Cedar- Since it's so late in the fall, I'm hoping your plum tree will bounce back fairly well. Deer are always a challenge, especially this time of year, when there's less for them to eat in the fields.

Flora- A fence is an excellent idea. Do you have an 8' deer fence, or something else?

Schoolhouse- I think we must have rabbits, but I've only ever seen one, years ago. I think the barn kitties discourage everything but the deer, from coming this close to the house.

For my vege garden & some fruit trees, I put up a 8' wire deer fence with wooden posts. In my ornamental garden with my espaliered fruit trees, I put up a 5-6' wooden fence. The lay of the land for the wooden fence in such that on the deers side it is closer to 7-8' as the land slopes away some.
The varied heights of the uprights makes it harder for them to discern the real height.

and an espaliered apple tree.
{{gwi:248885}}

I don't have a pic of my wire fence yet.

flora

flora, like the fence very much. You must have great patience to try an espaliered fruit tree, congrats. It reminds me of of "The Victorian Garden Series" with Harry Dodson.

Flora- Beautiful fence! I'd love to have something like that around my garden :)

Very pretty and very clever.
Renee