John van Zyl, [24 Apr 2025 at 10:29:59]: Good day colleagues. I have client from a lion park with a 12-year-old lioness. 1. She is moderate to seriously obese (diet change helped a bit to reduce fat). 2. She is growing a mane like a young male. 3. At times, she is grumpy towards the other lioness in the enclosure. 4. She is not sterilised and not taking any kind of hormonal therapy. Question: a. Any suggestions to help with weight and mane growth? b. Any suggestions where I can look up normal blood values for lions c. Would hormonal or any specific blood tests be of any value?? Kind regards and thanks Zoe Glyphis, 25 Apr 2025 Lion ref values : Bart Gazendam, 25 Apr 2025 Not completely the same cases, but might be somewhat similar John van Zyl, [25 Apr 2025 at 09:55:53]: Thank you so much for the article. Very similar or possibly even the same problem. Adrian Tordiffe, [25 Apr 2025 at 10:57:41]: Hi John I would suggest that you reduce the feeding frequency to twice a week, giving no more than 8 kg of carcass with each feed, then monitor her weight and Body Condition Score over the next few months. For the mane growth, you can either insert a 9.4 mg deslorelin implant or opt for surgical ovariectomy or ovariohysterectomy. Her mane will fall out over a few months and the reduced testosterone will cause the required behavioural improvements. John van Zyl, [25 Apr 2025 at 11:17:20]: Thanx Adrian!! Emily Mitchell, [26 May 2025 at 18:32:55 (31 May 2025 at 21:52:52)]: Hi John. There could be several sources of abnormal levels of testosterone in a lioness. Extrinsic sources (such as anabolic steroids in beef) - but that effect would probably be transient and might affect more than one animal. Intrinsic sources include adrenal tumours (rare) and production by interstitial cells in a lioness with no remaining germ cells. Since deslorelin is an agonist, it will initially increase testosterone production (and associated behaviour) until the pituitary becomes desensitized and stops producing LH (and therefore testosterone). If however the ovarian interstitial cells are neoplastic, which they sometimes are in my experience, they may continue to produce testosterone regardless of LH levels - then ovariectomy is the only way to stop the production of testosterone.
