lucas – Oct 11, 2004 12:00 AM

The retired wolves had their medical exam on Friday October 8th. The rain held off until after the exam was complete and made for a nice cool recovery rather than the warmer than normal fall we've been experiencing. The injections went extremely well with all wolves essentially lying down and showing limited response to the injection. The immobilization was extremely smooth, I would classify it as textbook. I don't think the drugging could have gone off better. The lab was fantastic to have tables set up to process the wolves, much better than the auditorium floor or outside in the slightly drizzling day. Lucas's exam revealed more tartar build up on his teeth and his upper molars are starting to show some signs of decay. He had some noticeable mucle loss around his front right scapula (shoulder) and showed some muscle tightening around his hip joints. He has a dead upper incisor tooth (right central, but it's still solid. An eye exam revealed the start of calcium/lipid deposits on his cornea similar to MacKenzies, but just slight spots. The IOP (glaucoma test ) was 17 mm hg which is considered good. It appears that Lucas broke a toenail completely off on his left hind paw (outer toe) when? who knows, but it's healed now. I'm not sure how we missed that during the regular checks, although they do have alot of hair covering their nails. He had been licking it, there were saliva stains on his paw, in between his toes. His coat was good, and he appeared to be in great condition.