Aidan – A Quick Medical Exam

On Thursday of this week we immobilized Aidan to take to the local veterinarian in order to diagnose the recent medical issues he’s been facing. We’ve been noticing a distension in his belly, and it hasn’t been due to food. With the recent medical issues we faced with our older wolves Shadow and Malik, we were concerned about a potential mass or tumor in Aidan’s abdomen.

Thankfully we were able to determine that there was nothing physically abnormal about his abdomen, no masses nor tumors, the distension appears to be fat. We took blood and urine for analysis to determine the reason for this excess fat.

When taking a social animal, like the wolf, out of the enclosure, it is important to note the possibility of the pack not accepting him back in. The short few hours of separation can appear to be dispersal from the pack, meaning that he has left the pack. This often occurs in younger animals in the wild, when sexually mature wolves leave the pack, often in search of a mate for their own. This risk is why we seldom sedate an individual animal for diagnosis unless it is absolutely necessary. In this case, Aidan returned to the pack strong, and hasn’t had any major issues since returning. We are still waiting for the test results to determine how we can make him feel better, but for now, he has returned to the pack maintaining his status as the dominant male.