Black Bear #18-2983 update

On November 1, Dr. Karra carefully examined Black Bear cub #18-2983 prior to moving her outdoors. Dr. Karra gave us this report:

"Today we anesthetized her to recheck her wounds prior to moving her to bear pens. She was anesthetized routinely and was stable during the entire procedure. The wound on the inside of her left elbow has contracted a lot since admission, meaning that the healthy edges of skin are moving into the center of the wound bed. This means that it is healing very well! Only a small portion of granulation tissue in the center remains, and I expect this will heal quickly and without incident.  There was no exudate of evidence of infection. The previously wound on the top of her head is scabbed and appears quiet without any sign of infection or inflammation. No ticks were noted. We repeated skin scrapings and found two live and two dead ursacoptes mites (the mite associated with “bear mange”). The hair on her ventral abdomen was mildly thin, but there was no evidence of the marked alopecia or crusty skin that we typically see in our “mange bears”.  She was treated with ivermectin already this week in an effort to treat these mites. We also repeated an emergency panel today as she was anemic on presentation. Her PCV has increased to 30% (from an intake value of 24%). This means she is still considered anemic, but has improved and is almost within our reference range. She was also weighed at this check-up and weighed in at 6.4 kg – which is an entire kilo up from her intake exam on Sunday. She was ear tagged with patriotic [for me] ear tags -- a white tag in her right ear, and a red tag in her left ear, then was moved to Bear Pen 1. Recovery from anesthesia was quick and uneventful and she started exploring her new enclosure right away.

"The plan for this patient will to be to house her Bear Pens alone as she is considered contagious to the other bears due to her ursacoptes. In two weeks’ time, we will anesthetize her again for repeat blood work, to recheck her wound, and repeat skin scrapings. Just to touch on the more distant future since I’ve had this questions a few times today, she would not be considered a candidate to move to the Bear Yard with the other cubs until she is confirmed to be mite-free, and at least 10 kg in body weight. Likely she will move to Large Mammal Isolation once she is free of mites, and gain some more weight there prior to moving to the yard and being introduced to the other cubs."