Boltz- Seasonal Submission

Boltz has a fair amount of testing behavior that increased as the winter set in.  With the onslaught of warmer weather, comes a change in hormones and tolerances.  Boltz is much more submissive to Aidan and quite social with wolf care staff.  Boltz did extremely well with his medical exam completed on the 17th of April.  Wolf care staff modified immobilization techniques to address Boltz’s intimidation of staff and he had a very smooth exam.  These exams are very important to identify any issues that may not be apparent through physical or behavioral symptoms.  Through blood work, we identified a slight elevation in Boltz’s glucose levels that will prompt additional testing to address any potential issues.  The class of drugs that we use for immobilization do not have dissociative properties, meaning that the wolves will remember and associate circumstances around the event.  This is always a concern and is the reason we have a detailed plan of procedures, personnel, separation of wolves and protocol for reuniting the pack.  After the immobilization, we were very pleased to see that Boltz showed no avoidance behavior to the staff or the holding facilities used during the exam.   Boltz is maintaining a consistent and healthy weight of 110 pounds.