Grizzer – Maneuvering through the Vegetation

By using all three retirement enclosures, we are dispersing the travel paths and reducing the soil compaction.  With a little help of a higher than average rainfall, the vegetation has responded well this summer.  There are parts of the retirement enclosure that are only accessible by a path that is only 3 feet high, better known as Grizzer’s path.  While his ACL injury is bothersome, especially when he has been resting for extended periods of time, he can still maneuver through the enclosures especially when he sees the staff prepping his daily meals.  The anti-inflammatory medications are doing little to help, the Veterinarians are treating his condition through pain management and staff are working on additional visits to make sure he is comfortable.  Grizzer still likes to roll over for staff and get a full-belly massage.  The daily feedings are working as well, he is back up to 122 pounds.  As with Luna’s circumstance, we want to keep the weight at a manageable weight to reduce stress to joints, but with winter coming, this is a good weight for Grizzer to enter the winter prior to his 14th year.

Grizzer – Showing a residual mark

We just finished a 10-day trial of Deramaxx to help Grizzer with inflammation due to his torn ACL.  We did not see any difference, so we are going to start him on a 10-day trial of Rimadyl.  Some animals respond better to one medication over another.  We will let you know how Grizzer responds to the Rimadyl in a future log.  The retired pack had a number of behind the scenes visits from the Wolf Ethology class this week.  For a wolf that may not be feeling great, due to the excessive heat and his ACL, he did great with all the extra people near his enclosure.  Grizzer looks good for a 13 year old wolf!  His current weight is 120.4 lbs. 

The Center participated in a Mirror Self Recognition Test with Dr. Shannon Barber-Meyers over the last few months.  She will be publishing her findings on the study.  Grizzer still shows the blue mark on his head from the mirror test.  It was definitely good stimuli for Grizzer. 

Grizzer – Liking the Routine

Grizzer has now been on a special feeding routine for at least 3 months and it’s benefited our goal of increasing Grizzer’s weight as well as increasing his confidence.  To avoid any unnecessary dominance and to keep Luna on a well documented food plan, we separate Grizzer to the East Side Retired area for his feeding.  He knows the gate system and is very cooperative with staff.  His coat is still soft and glossy, and he still carries that tuft of hair on his neck that makes him appear to be wearing a something that typically starts to fade with age.  We did start him on a 10-day course of anti-inflammatory medication this week, his response to his ACL injury seemed to be more problematic with him not weight-bearing on his back leg.  We also had a recommendation to start him on Turmeric Curcumin with Bioperine as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant supplement.  In addition, we are making some connections for a product called “System Saver”.  Our colleagues at Wolf Park in Indiana have had good results with this product developed by a Veterinarian.    At his age, we definitely favor tying supplements before pharmaceuticals and their side effects.  The main goal is making him feel better. 

Grizzer – Modified Grizzer 500

In the past, we referenced Grizzer’s tendency to go into a playbow/invite chase behavior that the staff nicknamed the Grizzer 500.  Last week, Grizzer was stimulated by a visit from Board Member, Nancy Gibson.  After some social time with Nancy, Grizzer did a playbow and sprung up to run a lap around the enclosure.  Of course at the age of 13, the run was shorter than in the past, but the attitude was the same.   In this week’s photo, if you look closely at his back right leg, you will notice a much straighter alignment than in the past.  Grizzer willingly allowed staff to conduct some body work on his leg, similar to Luna.  

Grizzer – Center of Attention

Grizzer has been spending more time in the Pack Holding Area where he remains near the center of the wolf yard.  But, Grizzer also remains the Center of attention for Luna.  Due to Grizzer’s age, he is now transitioned to a daily feeding of ~ 3 pounds of beef, venison, bonedust or chicken with a small Saturday carcass  so he can enjoy the behavior of carrying, caching and defending food.  So, when we feed every day, we have one staff person keeping Luna occupied in one side of retirement while Grizzer gets his dinner at another location.  Needless to say, Luna is alert to every sound of the crunching bones and clinking bowls until Grizzer has finished his dinner.  We are handfeeding Grizzer and as soon as he stops eating and starts caching, we stop feeding.  Luna has a different feeding protocol and we don’t need her eating extra food resources.  We have noticed Grizzer using the Pack Holding Area den on a regular basis.  The Working for Wolves crew built the den last fall and it’s 4 foot depth protects it from the afternoon sun.   Grizzer’s back right ACL injury has improved dramatically since the ice melted this spring.  The upcoming October Working for Wolves crew will be improving some of the ice conditions by building a protective area between the vestibules that connect the East Side Retired area to the Pack Holding Area. We weighed Grizzer on June 2nd when we weighed the pups.  Grizzer’s weight was a bit of a concern earlier in the year, but he is back to ~ 113 pounds, which is a good weight for him and not too heavy to put stress on his leg.  He is shedding in long sheets of undercoat right now.  We try to avoid any of the hard brushes on his older body, so we are letting some of the hair fall out naturally, making him look at bit more ragged than Luna.  Weight management while maintaining group dynamics takes time, staff and very close attention to detail. 

Grizzer – Seeming more Social

After we received the diagnosis on Grizzer’s ALC tear, we knew that there might be modifications to his interactions with Luna.  What we didn’t know was the Grizzer didn’t approve of any plans that involved separation from Luna.  We thought separation was in his best interest to take it easy and rest, but when he was away from Luna he would whine at the fence and displayed a lot of anxiety about the separation.  We saw improvements in his gait, so we decided to allow them time together and that seems to have changed Grizzer’s overall attitude.  He is much more social with staff and tends to rest in closer proximity to Luna.  As we spoke about in the last log, he is very relaxed with the activities associated with summer.  Interns, lawn mowers, project work, behind the scenes people, he is relaxed through it all.   One of Grizzer’s stress relievers is to chew off branches from low hanging trees.  We are happy to report that all the trees we planted this spring are intact which means that Grizzer hasn’t had a need to seek out the new vegetation.  Of course, stress isn’t the only reason vegetation is a focal point; yearling curiosity can be a challenge as well.  But, at 13, Grizzer’s a bit over the novelty of wolf care staff and their forestry projects.

Grizzer – Letting the Exhibit Pack Pass

Whenever a work project is completed, it requires some temporary movement of a group of wolves.  When crews are working in the Exhibit Pack, Grizzer and Luna are moved to the back habitat and the Exhibit Pack is ushered into the East Retirement enclosure to give some distance to the work project and Aidan (who has the hardest time with separation).  Luna and Grizzer are quite tolerant, waiting for the time they can go back and reclaim their cached objects.  This is certainly good stimulation for Grizzer physically as well as mentally.  Despite his age, he always seems to know where he cached some meat.

Grizzer- The Height Advantage

Grizzer is on top of the “Pack Holding Area” den getting a glimpse of the Exhibit Pack’s many bouts of activity.  We have a visual barrier along the fence line, but due to the nature of our facility design, we have connective chutes and gates that allow easy transport of wolves between enclosures and offer a glimpse of the adjoining packs.  If there’s too much activity, we can always move the wolves to the East Side Retired area where they is no direct view of the Exhibit Pack.  Our preference is to allow them access to all three retired areas.   If you were watching our webcams, you may have noticed that we used the East Side on the last two Thursday mornings to put some distance between the Exhibit Pack and some work crews taking down hazard trees. Fortunately, Grizzer and Luna are getting along quite well and willingly and patiently shared the back habitat during the work projects.  Grizzer seems to be a bit more stable in mobility and his weight has stabilized around 114 pounds allowing us to move forward with some blood work and further evaluation of his knee.  To learn more about Grizzer, consider joining his birthday webinar on May 5th at 6 pm Central.  To register, follow this link. https://wolf.org/programs/webinars/

Grizzer – Showing Improvement

Thanks to those concerned viewers who have been emailing about Grizzer’s back right leg issue and his time away from the webcam.  I always welcome emails and am most grateful that people care about our ambassadors as much as our wolf care staff.  Determining the cause and subsequent treatment for Grizzer’s leg has many issues that are impacted by his age and overall health condition.  Every decision is made with an assessment of implications and alternatives, especially related to risk assessment.  Our Vet has several aspects of treatment that we are trying, but they all begin with documentation and observation.  Medications are prescribed and staff work diligently to document even the slightest change with each treatment by analyzing video.  This week’s image is clipped from video assessment on Monday, April 10th.   Initially, because the timing correlated with the increased activity with Luna, our vet wanted to rule out the cause as an “Acute Sports Injury”.  Typically, these injuries diminish with a short duration anti-inflammatory.  In Grizzer’s case, we documented limited change with an anti-inflammatory, indicating that it may be more characteristic of an age-related ailment.  He was switched to an analgesic, to address pain issues and he seems to be improving.  In this photo, he is standing on his right leg to do an RLU (raised-leg urination).  This is a noticeable improvement and we hope this allows him to feel better and improve his overall health so we can prepare him for immobilization and a trip to the vet clinic.  We also decided to reunite Grizzer and Luna as pack mates.  While they were separated, Grizzer showed a bit of anxiety about the separation, and anxiety is not a path to improving overall health.  They are now utilizing all three retirement areas and the webcam is focused on the largest area known as the “East Side” Retirement area.

Grizzer – Another 10 Day Break

You may have noticed that Grizzer hasn’t been on the webcam recently.  We are keeping him separated from Luna to reduce some of the variabilities that may be contributing to his back right leg soreness.  We had separated them a few weeks ago, but this time we decided to move Grizzer to the Pack Holding Area which is a smaller enclosure.  He seems more comfortable being near the wolf lab and with a smaller enclosure, we are able to cover the entire area with cover hay so we reduce another variable, the icy conditions.  Our veterinarian is monitoring his status closely and his treating his condition.  At this point, time will tell if we are on the right path.  We originally planned to immobilize him and take him to the clinic for more extensive diagnostics, but we are always concerned with immobilization risks, especially on a wolf nearing 13 years of age.  So, we decided 10 more days of treatment and rest was a safer course of action and Grizzer seems to be climbing the den and weight bearing on his leg.  This week’s Youtube video showed him caching a beaver in the den with no issues supporting himself with his back legs.  We are also fortunate that Grizzer is a very easy patient for meds delivery and willing comes into the Wolf Care Center for regular weighing sessions.  We decided to give him a bit more time for rest and medication, monitor his weight closely and if get a blood sample without having to immobilize him.  Grizzer has been a willing blood donor in the past, but the last few tries have been unsuccessful; He definitely knows when staff are carrying equipment for a blood-draw. 

Date Weight Age
6/10/2016 106.7 lbs 12 years – 1 month (after a winter of construction stress)
6/27/2016 115.9 lbs 2 1/2 weeks later – Wolves are quick to put on weight 
8/6/2016 122.8 lbs 12 years – 3 months
11/18/2016

129.4  lbs

 12 years – 6 months – this is the largest weight Grizzer has ever been
12/13/2016

129.2 lbs

 Maintaining his weight even though he is sharing resources with Luna
4/1/2017

115 lbs

 12 years – 11 months- watching this weight closely, this may be an indication of another health issue