Moose Suffer from Arthritis, Too

Reading the title, I came prepared to offer consolation to CR4 member Moose.

Thanks, Doorman! Yep, this Moose isn't immune either. Fortunately, naproxen helps. Still, I don't recommend leaving feeders with the stuff out in the wild.

SavvyExacta, please forgive me if the answer to this lies within your reference links.

If I read your text correctly, the moose involved were those limited to the island. Is there information regarding the available foodstuffs on the island that would be the diet of a moose? You mention food available to them in sufficient quantity, but also mention malnutrition. This seems an indication of insufficient nutritional value in their diet.

As far as Moose's diet, if he is like me, pizza, fried chicken and beer make up pretty much the entire food pyramid. I assume you guys are feeding him sufficient quantities of these nutritional cornerstones.

Hi Doorman,

The various references explain the malutrition in terms of feast/famine. I'm trying to recall from memory so I could be incorrect in my explanation here: there were times of ample food supply and times of scarcity. It was thought that the times of scarcity didn't necessarily cause arthritis in the adult moose that were living at that time, but in the babies they were carrying and perhaps the very young moose.

I read in one article (I may not have cited it) that the moose were eating a lot of branches and needles from trees.

As I recall, moose are fond of forbs and tree shoots. These provide little sodium, and moose get a lot of their necessary sodium intake from aquatic plants. If the island provided a limited supply of pond feeding, that would be a significant shortcoming in their nutrition. I am not sure if sodium deficiency contributes to arthritis, but... it certainly cannot be helping.

I put lots of salt on my pizza and chicken and I still have 'Rice Krispie' bones.

I would offer an observation from experience: I have seen many large wild animals that suffered from bad teeth... if your teeth hurt, you do not eat, and malnutrition sets in, and the inevitable end arrives.

I vaguely remember one of the articles mentioning something about moose teeth but don't remember the details. Most of them were trying to draw conclusions between young moose malnutrition leading to arthritis as adults equating to the same thing in humans.

Malnutrition doesn't necessarily mean a shortage of food for humans - as you say, it could be from eating too much salty pizza. (For me, the cheese is salty enough - and I do love pizza!) I'll be finding out the state of my own bones soon - I'm getting a bone density scan next month.

I confess I have not read all the links provided, but are there still wolves in the study zone?

If not then I'd suggest lack of predation forces and limited gene pool are the things to look at before diet.

Yes, wolves are still part of the study. It indicated that moose were often preyed on because of arthritic hips. This left them unable to run away from the wolves very well.

I thought about the gene pool issue myself. It is a small island. The articles I read didn't mention whether or not new animals were introduced to the population.

Moose get Lyme, too...read about Borrelia burgdorferi and how it mimics many other 'diseases' and how it's three morphed 'cyst' forms are most likely the cause of MS, Alzheimer's, osteoarthritis, heart arythemia, Parkinson's, and a host of other symptoms that are 'diseases' without a cause.

A lot of research has been done in Europe over the last few years that isn't really accepted in the US because it wasn't done by major drug companies.