Archive for: lakota

Lakota has shed the least so far this spring. Staff continue daily brushing to encourage the wolves to loose their dense undercoat. As the weather gets warmer, it's critical that the older animals keep cool. The sprinkler hose is working well, and Lakota is often on the top of the den boxes getting a mist of water from the hoses. Yesterday, when the wolf curator was cleaning the stock tank in their enclosure, Lakota stole the sponge from the cleaning bucket, and created an intensive defensive lip curl and growl when the curator took the sponge back. Even though they're 13 years old, it doesn't mean they're beyond the point of taking possession of unguarded objects. We seem to remember writing this in the log a year ago when she played tug of war with the garden hose, guess we didn't learn. Wolves are wolves, don't be lulled into a false sense of security that you've known them for 13 years and they won't behave like wolves.

The logs this week will all contain the same text… Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow. A spring snowstorm dumped nearly 30 inches of snow on the Ely area on Saturday and Sunday, leaving the wolf care staff to shovel, clean gates, blow snow, clean cameras, uncover heated waterers and pick up dead branches from trees that couldn’t support the weight of the wet snow. The wolves enjoyed the snow, although a few of the branches startled Maya. It’s not unusual for a spring snowstorm, but with temperatures usually in the 40’s and 50’s they go quickly. This time, the weather forecast doesn’t predict much above 40 degrees this week, and there are a few more days of snow predicted. Enjoy the webcams; I’m sure you will see the wolves romping through the snow.

Lakota and MacKenzie had two treats in honor of their 15th birthday. On Monday, April 28th, the actual day that we celebrate as their birthday, they shared a bag of dried cranberries. Wolves have a bit of a sweet tooth, even in the wild; you can occasional blueberries in wolf scat. We don’t make a habit of this because we did have an issue a few years ago when Lakota over indulged on raspberries that she picked on the edge of the enclosure, but it is a good treat. The second treat came in the form of a roasting hen that they received as their mid-week meal. What a difference a few days can make, the photo of Lakota digging in the snow for berries was a Monday photo, the photo of MacKenzie carrying the chicken in a nearly snow free enclosure was a Wednesday photo.

Part I As I wrote in last week’s logs, “Since then, she has been treated with an anti-inflammatory, and seems to be improving. As you will see in the video, it still appears as if she is splaying her back feet out. This may be in response to pain, or it may be an indication of something more significant. The improvement we saw was from the pain killer, by the time we came back from picking up the pups (2 days later), we observed something more significant, a growth on the bottom of Lakota’s paw. After a vet check, it was determined that surgery was the only option. On Friday, May 16th, we drugged Lakota and took her to the Ely Vet Clinic and had a 2 inch benign tumor removed from the bottom of her paw. The tumor grew quickly and had caused significant irritation to the bottom of her pad. Concerned about the issues of stitches on the bottom of her pad in a dirt environment and the possibility of her ripping her stitches, the Vet asked us to keep her inside the lab for a few days with the bandage on, and under 24 hour surveillance.

Lakota is doing well, the vet check this morning revealed that the recent growth on her face is a benign cyst. This is good news, but she is developing many more of these cysts on a weekly basis. This is why it is so critical to have daily wolf checks to monitor these changes.