Plasma is a vital resource in cases of severely ill elephants
The staff with the Chiang Mai University Mobile Vet Clinic have been working as hard as usual, but March also gave the team a welcomed chance to celebrate, along with a local community, the animals that they help to care for!
At the start of our monthly report from Dr. Siripat, he described working with the team from the Thai Elephant Alliance Association to collect 29 bags of plasma for future needs in the case of severely ill or injured elephants. Plasma, which is derived from blood collected from donor elephants, may be used to help treat young elephants effected by EEHV (Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus) and a host of other issues.
Human-Elephant Conflict is frequent issue throughout much of the areas where Asian elephant roam. So when a bull elephant in musth (a period of time when hormones are heightened in male elephants – sometimes resulting in increased aggression) was loose in a populated area, the CMU Mobile Vet Clinic was called in to assist with capturing the male to prevent harm to other elephants or humans.
Bull elephant stands in the center of the village before his sedation and safe capture the following day
Alongside staff from the Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC), with a carefully laid out plan to safely sedate and restrain the animal and more than 26 hours of work, the team successfully captured the bull. Story note: In cases when a bull elephant could potentially or is causing harm and must be corralled, the bull will be released at a future date (following the end of his musth period) when it is determine he is unlikely to pose any additional threat.
Unfortunately, prior to his capture, the bull elephant managed to injure a female elephant, fracturing her left front leg. The injured elephant was sent to the hospital at the TECC, where she was put into a cast and will stay for follow-up procedures to ensure her full recovery. Her prognosis is good, but there will be a long road to recovery. Stay tuned for an update on her condition in the AES June Newsletter.
You may remember last month, we told you about an elephant that was being treated for an abscess on her back. The CMU Mobile Vet Clinic made a return trip to check in on her and found that with the excellent care from her owner, the wound was healing faster than expected!
CMU Mobile Vet Clinic providing owner with additional medication to aid in the healing of the elephant's abscess
A highlight of the month however, was when the CMU team was able to join with the Huay Pak Kood community for their Elephant Homecoming Festival. In fact, members of the Mobile Vet Clinic were invited as the community’s special guests and were able to join in on discussions about elephant health and welfare. Health checks were performed on all of the elephants as well and the team found everyone to be in excellent form, both physically and mentally. As part of the festivities, the community prepared an extra-large buffet for the elephants to enjoy. What a fantastic way to end another month of hard work and dedication to elephant care.
If you would like to celebrate elephants and the incredible team from the Chiang Mai University Mobile Vet Clinic, please consider giving a donation and send a thank you along to them by going to the AES donation page.