Luna- Situational Awareness

When working with a wolf that has such a challenging diagnosis, staff must be extremely diligent and be aware of every movement, behavioral actions, change in attitude, feeding preferences and assessment of discomfort and pain.  Staff need to employ a significant amount of creativity to make sure she gets the necessary medications.  She continues to receive two different types of antibiotics, some pain relief and anti-inflammatory medication.  The incision has been challenging as the mass continues to cause her irritation and she’s scratched open a portion of the outer sutures.  The inner sutures are holding and staff are using topical treatments to keep the incision dry and encourage healing.  We have moved her back into the Pack Holding Area and given her access to the Wolf Care Center, but the negative conditioning associated with the surgery recovery has left her reluctant to  come into the building.  Staff left one of her favorite fleece blankets in the building to entice her, but, she chose to move the blanket outside and sleep in the vestibule or her favorite spot is in the den.   A Youtube showing her behavioral activity will be posted later this week and we will connect with Luna as part of our August 14th, Positive Conditioning Webinar. We will definitely need some positive conditioning to overcome Luna’s avoidance from all the medications and procedures surrounding this diagnosis.