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Honey - UPDATE April 29, 2016
29 April 2016
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So many good memories of our beautiful girl Honey. So many tributes in your words. Lily Fans captured some of the Honey as a cub
Honey as a cub
memories in these two musical slide show tributes to her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccbiDBUuyPchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VtL1TLp6EYHer grave is in front of the North American Bear Center. We will have a professional marker made that has her name and her years of birth and death. To see it a person would turn south into the Bear Center driveway and then go right (west) to the northwest corner of the parking area. The grave is in the nice flat grassy area between the parking lot and the highway and is near flowers and one of the bear statues.
What killed her? Honey was 10 feet from her pen when she took her last step. She sat down and was unable to walk. The staff immediately recognized that she had something seriously wrong and called our veterinarian. To learn all we could, the staff consulted with over a dozen veterinarians, including one in England who had seen the same condition in over a dozen bears. She was very familiar with what Honey was facing. She and others said that old bears can get arthritis that leads to a pinched nerve, resulting in a hind leg that becomes numb and useless and loss of kidney function. Honey was not urinating. The veterinarian from England said that bears that didn?t recover in a couple days of treatment did not recover at all. Veterinarians we talked with agreed with the medicines Honey was getting. Honey did not improve with a week of treatment. On the last day, she was obviously sick and deteriorating, probably from urine build-up. When our veterinarian, Honey?s owner, and the staff saw that, they all concurred that the most humane course was euthanasia.
Honey tribute
Honey tribute
Little is known about natural causes of death in old bears in the wild. From the conversation with the veterinarian in England, it seems likely that a common cause of death is what Honey had. It makes a person wince to think of a wild bear facing that without help. Honey?s leg had no feeling. According to our veterinarian, urea build-up in the blood was likely what caused her rapid deterioration the last night and morning. Before she deteriorated, we had planned to x-ray her, but that proved to be impossible. No hospital would admit her, and we learned that portable x-ray machines are only good for small bones in the feet and lower legs?not for the spine. By then, she was deteriorating so fast that we didn?t want to put her through any more. Sad.
A Lily Fan initiated a spontaneous fundraiser for a memorial, donating a dollar for each Lily Fan who put up a picture of Honey on Facebook. 98 Lily Fans participated. Another Lily Fan matched the money, raising almost enough for Honey?s marker. Thank you all.
Other Lily Fans have asked if there will be a memento they could keep. I?m not sure what to do on that. A Lily Fan created this beautiful picture of Honey that might be useful on something along with Honey?s name and dates of birth and death. Not sure how to use it. Thoughts?
I was happy to see that the months of January, May, and September in the 2016 calendar are Honey?s months with May starting in a couple days.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
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Topic: Jewel and her cubs (Read 2362818 times)