BILLINGS — The results are back from a necropsy conducted on a moose seen wandering through Billings last fall, and state wildlife officials told MTN News the animal suffered a blood infection and severe bone loss in his legs, but he did not test positive for chronic wasting disease.
The body was sent to the Wildlife Health Lab in Bozeman where a full necropsy was done to see what led to the decline of the young moose, who was euthanized by wildlife agents. The Communication and Education Program Manager for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 5, Chrissy Webb, told MTN News on Wednesday that they were able to draw a few conclusions from the animal autopsy.
"During that (necropsy), they did X-rays of his body. Those X-rays, specifically of the moose's two front feet, showed some pretty significant bone loss in some of the bones in his feet," Webb said. "Associated with that bone loss were some pretty severe infections. They didn’t find any nails or puncture wounds or something that would have locally caused those infections. So their thought is that those infections and associated bone loss were caused by a blood infection. That would explain why infections were present in both of his front feet."
Webb said the significant bone loss and infection made it extremely difficult for the moose to walk without feeling pain. Many residents reported seeing the moose putting his weight on his knees instead of his feet.
“From that pretty severe pain associated with something like that, the X-rays showed you can visibly see that bone loss there," Webb said. "It was pretty severe bone loss, probably causing him to have trouble walking and pain in walking definitely."
Webb explained this infection was most likely caused by bacteria, and there is no way of knowing how long he was infected or when the bone loss began.
“The infection was very likely caused by a bacteria and that isn’t a contagious thing. He got that bacteria from somewhere, but that doesn’t mean that he was spreading it around,” Webb said. "We don’t know the specific cause that would have caused the blood infection and then the infection in his feet. There’s a lot of different sources where that could have come from, so we can’t say with certainty where that came from."
The young bull moose first wandered into Billings about four months ago and almost immediately caught the attention of residents and wildlife officials alike.
After the moose appeared injured in late November, Fish, Wildlife and Parks decided to euthanize the animal on Dec. 1.
Webb explained the moose's condition would not have improved on its own, and he most likely would have died slowly on his own without the euthanization.
"We were already seeing that he was having trouble walking, so that loss of mobility and sort of associated malnutrition from something like this would’ve made predation on the moose a lot more likely," Webb said. "Just sort of that overall poor health probably would have caused him to pass away in the wild from malnutrition or from a predator attacking him."
And with the results of the necropsy, Webb said FWP stands by its decision of euthanizing the moose.
"We euthanized this moose because we really felt that his survival in the wild was not possible," Webb said. "Seeing the results of this necropsy, seeing the condition of his feet knowing there was an infection that would have likely spread throughout the rest of his body, that sort of solidified our understanding that he wasn’t going to make it.”
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