shadow – May 5, 2008 12:00 AM

Medical exams are hardest on the pack leaders, as they tend to resist letting go of their control and struggle to fight the drug, and express anxiety as the rest of the pack is separated. The tail wags in Shadow’s video clip show the strong social relationship these wolves share. They are a compatible pack and get along well together. You will also notice in Shadow’s video that he is scratching his ears. This is one of the reasons Shadow and Malik have had more extensive veterinary exams in the last few years. In 2005, it was discovered that Shadow had ear mites, after several treatments, those were cleared up and no evidence of mites were detected in 2006, but he still showed irritation in his ears. So, in 2007, he had an exam with a full ear cleaning, again, no problems were identified. In this exam, it appears that there are small areas of irritation that could be related to allergies. Staff will be working with the Veterinarian to attempt to give Shadow some relief.