Starting to have nightmares of Ticks

As Stephanie mentioned in the previous blog post, within the first few hours of working with the dogs, we could see how prevalent certain ticks and parasites are in this region of Thailand.  This post is meant to give some more background information surrounding this topic and hopefully provide some insight on what we were doing to help!

Ticks were the #1 parasite that we saw during our time with the dogs and Elephant Nature Park. They are blood-sucking parasites that will attach themselves to an animal by physical contact. They use harpoon-like "teeth" that allow them to anchor firmly in place while sucking blood from their animal host.  In order to remove a tick from a dog, we used tweezers to firmly pull on the head of the tick to detach them from the skin.  We would check every dog that we worked with for ticks.  Unfortunately, they are all pretty much colonized by them. As you can imagine, we became very good at "de-ticking" by the end of the week. Ticks are not only an annoyance to the dog by causing irritation, they can also act as vectors of serious disease. Ticks can carry and spread the organisms that cause blood parasites and other potentially deadly diseases. A single tick can carry several disease organisms at the same time.  We most commonly saw dogs with ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis from the brown dog tick, which passes an organism into the bloodstream when it bites.  Most positive dogs had clinical signs of fever and bone marrow suppression, whereas the more chronic patients were at risk of bleeding, lameness and kidney disease. These diseases could be fatal for dogs left untreated.

When a new dog would be brought in, we would immediately take a small blood sample in order to run a SNAP test to check for blood parasites. We have these handy in-house blood tests in Canada, so I was surprised to see them in the clinic. They are expensive at about 5 dollars a test, and we would use at least 2 a day. I guess it is a more necessary expense considering how prevalent blood parasites are in their area. Then, If a dog was positive, Doxycycline was the drug of choice to treat the blood parasites mentioned above. Doxy is a member of the tetracycline antibiotics group, and is commonly used to treat a variety of infections.  We were very lucky to have this drug on hand, and as you can imagine- it got used quite a bit. 

In addition, Demodectic Mange was another huge problem we saw regularly in the clinic. Demodex is a type of mite that occurs naturally in the hair follicles of most dogs in low numbers around the face and other areas of the body. In most dogs, these mites never cause problems. However, in certain situations, such as an underdeveloped or impaired immune system, intense stress, or malnutrition, the mites can reproduce rapidly.  This can cause symptoms in sensitive dogs that range from mild irritation and hair loss on a small patch of skin to severe and widespread inflammation and secondary infections.  If we suspected there was a dog with mange, we would preform a skin scraping to check for its presence under a microscope.

Unfortunately, most of the dogs that we took skin scrapings from turned up positive. Treatment consisted of a drug called Ivermectin, which is a broad spectrum anti parasitic. We were able to administer the drug by injecting the dose into a meatball of canned dog food --the dogs ate it happily!  These dogs would continue to get increasing doses of the drug every day for 7 days. 

Even though working with ticks and mites all day probably contributed to the fact that we started to have bad dreams of ticks coming after us, it was a great learning experience that we were glad to be a part of (especially because we would have never been able to see this to the same extent in Canada).  

Jaclyn

Final Days of ENP

I would just like to start by saying sorry for taking so long since the last post. I'm not actually sorry though because we have had our butts planted on the beach for the last two days and haven't had much time for blogging! Since our last posts we have finished our second week at ENP, and have flown down to Koh Samui for our week off before our next project. We will be posting beautiful pictures to make you all jealous in the next few days or so, but for now to recap our final week at ENP.

     For the last week at ENP, Jaclyn and I were with the dogs, and Lauren and Steph Pelka were with the elephants. We knew we had our work cut out for us after the other girls spent a week there. We did much of same during the week, including walking, bathing, and treating dogs. We assisted Pong in surgery, and even were fortunate enough to be allowed to scrub in for a dog neuter! Jaclyn and I were very flattered and happy that Pong trusted our skills (which we had to demonstrate ahead of time under his watchful eye!) and allowed us the opportunity to learn and assist. We are proud of the work we accomplished in such a short time, and would encourage anyone going to Thailand to consider stopping by the ENP dog shelter to lend a hand! 

   Some of our favourite patients of the week included dogs that we did twice-daily eye treatments for. Some were naughty naughty and some were very nice! We learned very quickly which were which! Naughty was a very popular word during our stay at ENP, as we discovered the many personalities of all the animal residents of the park. The pictures below show some of our daily eye treatments. Zombie and Grandma Yai are both missing one eye, the result of dog fighting. Unfortunately with so many dogs living at the park, bite wounds are a very common occurrence and can be severe. 

Sickie received eye drops twice per day, and was very friendly!

Me flushing Zombie's empty eye socket with saline to keep it clean

Grandma Yai is entirely missing her right eyeball

Grandma Yai is also the most shameless mooch

Sandy was a dog with a bite wound above the tail that had to be drained daily

     Another big problem we encountered was the parasites. This was a bit of a shock for us coming from Canada. We have our problems at home, but we have never had the opportunity to see some of these parasites in such high numbers. We spent a lot of time picking ticks off of the dogs. These ticks transit blood parasites, such as Ehrlichia and Anaplasma. Lyme disease is less of an issue in Thailand, but is still tested for. Heartworm is also a relatively common parasite in older local dogs. Blood parasites are something that we learn about in Canada, but rarely see first hand. Every other dog in Thailand seems to come in with a high fever, mucousy eyes, not eating, and we all just look at each other and sigh, "blood parasites". The ticks could be found in high numbers in the inside of the ears, and between the toes where it was warm and dark. They could also be found on our clothes after work which really freaked us out. 

     Mange is also a huge issue in the dog shelter. There is not enough man-power to keep on track with the routine medical shampoo baths to help control the skin problems we found. We bathed some of the more serious cases during our week there. This was another great learning experience for us, since we just finished our parasitology course where we learned about different types of mange, including Demodex and Sarcoptes. We did skin scrapings on several puppies and examined them under the microscope to find loads of the creepy demodex parasites. Treatment of mange is a long process, and is better prevented than cured. 

     We learned a lot in our two week stay at ENP. Although we are happy to be moving on, there are many things we will miss as we leave them behind. Special thanks to the wonderful vets we got to work with, and to Pong, the vet nurse, for being so patient and cheerful with us. We would recommend this place to anyone and are always open to answering questions! I will leave you with some pictures from our last week, and we will write again soon!

xo
Steph Pierre 

Dr P being friendly with the waterbuffalo

The delicious Thai food we ate for two weeks

Our last day: a thank you gift of locally made maple syrup and a signed Canadian flag for Dr P and Dr Rinku

Group shot from left to right: Jaclyn, Lauren, Dr. Rinku, Dr. Prasith, Steph Pelka and Steph Pierre

Saying goodbye to Pong after giving him a signed Canadian flag

First bath time on our first day!

Final elephant bath time

Jaclyn and I cooling down the hot elephants

Picking favourites in the puppy run

Getting mauled by adorable puppies in the puppy run

Our Week With The ENP Dogs

Upon our arrival at Elephant Nature Park I was very surprised to learn that the beautiful 200 acre reserve was not only home to the 42 elephants we were so anxious to meet but also to over 400 dogs, many of which had been rescued from Bangkok after the tsunami.  It soon became clear that the dogs were just as important an aspect of Lek's project and vision, with many dogs having free roam of the park and getting to mingle with the elephants and water buffalo!  After meeting with Dr. Rinku, one of the veterinarians, he told us how beneficial it would be to have veterinary students lend a hand at the dog shelter.  We decided to divide our two weeks here at ENP, two of us working with the dogs for one week and two of us with the elephants and then switching.  Lauren and I headed to the far end of the park near the front gate, unsure of what we would find!  We met up with Pong, the veterinary nurse who graduated from Chiang Mai University with a background in animal science.  Pong is the main man at the clinic, in charge of all veterinary treatments for the dogs, everything from surgery to basic vaccinations and wound care. 

Lauren and I with Pong in the treatment room

How does one house 400 dogs?!  I was amazed at how well the shelter was set up.  There are many large outdoor runs complete with a concrete structure for shade and playing and a pool of water for the dogs to cool off from this Thailand heat!  There are about 25 dogs per run and they have their own mahouts that stay with them throughout the day and keep an eye out for any abnormalities.  The clinic itself has space to house about 15 dogs and has a treatment room and a separate room for surgeries.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that it was quite well stocked with supplies, although some of the drugs we encountered we had never heard of and there were definitely less options when it came to treatment.  Lauren and I quickly realized that the week would be fast paced with only 2 other volunteers to help us walk all the clinic dogs 3 times a day in addition to assisting Pong with all treatments and surgeries, bathing dogs and lending a hand with the inevitable daily emergencies that would be brought in.

A couple of cases that we got close to included Ninja, a brown scruffy boy with the sweetest face and a strong tendency to park himself in the middle of the road at the hottest point of the day.  He had had surgery for an aural hematoma in both ears but was now needing to have them drained each day.  One of the elephant mahout's dogs came in, a female named Cee with a large bite wound on her back above her tail.  Bite wounds are very common here since there are so many dogs constantly interacting with each other, but all the dogs are carefully placed with ones they get along with so it is not as bad as it could potentially be! Cee's wound was most likely at least a week old and had become badly infected.  Because it was so large and very deep, maggots had developed and we spent a long time helping Pong clean the wound and removing them.  By the end of the week, with the maggots gone, the wound was already looking a lot better and had begun to heal.  Poor Cee was anxious to get back to her normal routine and made it clear through her very unique "gremlin-like" grumblings.  A beautiful lab Rhodesian ridgeback cross named Sally came in as an emergency one afternoon with an extremely high temperature of 106 degrees F (normal for a dog is between 98-102) in addition to having about 100 ticks in each ear (we are here during tick season and most of the dogs have ticks that need to be pulled off their skin; something Lauren and I were experts at by the end of the week!).  We covered Sally with cool wet towels and ice packs and started her on fluids to try and lower her temperature while we carefully cleared her ears of all the ticks.  After some rest she is now doing much better with a normal temperature and is so happy to be rid of the ticks that were making her ears so itchy!  We were also fortunate enough to assist with multiple spay and neuter surgeries which are so important here for controlling the stray dog population.

Trying to lower Sally's temp with ice packs and cool towels

Ninja during bath time!


Working with the dogs was an amazing experience.  Not only is it applicable to our future interest in small animal medicine but it was so incredibly rewarding to help these sweet and lovable dogs.  All of them had such a personality and good disposition, we wish we could fly them home with us!!  Thank you to Pong for being such a great teacher and helping make our week so enjoyable!

Hope everyone at home is enjoying their summer!

Steph Pelka xo

You may want to rethink having "Ride an Elephant" on your bucket list

Have you ever thought that riding an elephant would be something you would want to try?
Do you know of friends or family members who have riden one during their trip to South East Asia?  

Unfortunately, most people are unaware of what the elephants have gone through in order to allow humans to ride them.  Even as vet students, we were surprised at our lack of awareness on this issue as we learned how much suffering and abuse the elephants go through just to enter the tourist industry. Therefore, we decided to devote a blog post to the topic, in order to educate the public further on this issue.  You might even rethink your plans of booking an elephant ride the next time you are in Thailand.  

There is a long-time tradition in the Thai culture, the Phajaan or crush, which is the training method elephants undergo to become a part of the tourism industry. As young elephants, they are torn from their mothers and entrapped in a small confined area for days.  They are abused with bullhooks and bamboo sticks spiked with nails, are starved and sleep deprived-- all to become submissive to humans.

The Phajaan process originated in hill tribe communities in India and South East Asia, located in areas where elephants naturally occur. The 'ceremony' of Phajaan is said to have originated from the belief that the tribe's shaman can separate the spirit of an elephant from it's body, in effect driving the willful and wild spirit out of an elephant and leaving it under the control of it's handlers, or mahouts.

In reality, however, the Phajaan has nothing to do with the seperation of spirit, and everything to do with torturing an elephant until it is so fearful of it's human captors that it will do anything to avoid being hurt again.  This is the general and accepted practice in Thailand, and almost every elephant has undergone it if they are at a trekking camp or circus. 

There are also some pretty serious long term effects from being riden. It is not an easy task to support the weight of the packs and people each day (which can lead to spinal injuries). The seat attached on top of their back is strapped on and rubs on the elephants skin all day. This creates blisters that can become infected.  The elephant handlers use painful bullhooks or sling shots in order to "control" their elephants, and tend to use their sensitive areas such as their eyes in order to get their attention. We have seen numerous elephants who have already gone blind or who are going blind because of this.

So, if you are in Thailand and are looking for a project where you can come learn about elephants, feed them, bathe them and spend time with them without casing harm to them, check out Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai.  We would pick being here over taking an elephant ride any day. 

Our week with elephants

     At the start of our first week here at the Elephant Nature Park (ENP) we met with Dr. Rinku, the vet that we will be working with during our stay. We discussed what our objectives were for the project, and how we would best like to spend our time. We all agreed that we wanted to be where we were needed, and hopefully that would include working with the elephants. As you all know, there are four of us in our GV group, and there happened to be 3 other vet students from the US volunteering at the same time. We decided that the best way for us all to get hands on experience and help out where we are needed would be to split into pairs. Jaclyn and I (Steph Pierre) started with the elephants this week, and Lauren and Steph worked with the dogs (see their post for more info!)

      The ENP has many elephants that are in need of regular veterinary care. The amount of work needed to be done is far more than the number of hands needed to do it! Currently there are 3 vets that work with the elephants; Dr. Prasith of Thailand, Dr. Rinku from India, and Dr Erica from the US. On a daily basis we do routine care and also deal with injuries, illnesses and emergencies.

     As you can imagine, working with elephants is not always easy. Aside from being very dangerous animals, they are also slow moving and prone to doing the opposite of the thing you wanted. There are few elephants in the park that are actually safe to do routine care on, due to their traumatic pasts and lack of positive reinforcement. The ENP is a wonderful example of the use of positive reinforcement rather than the use of 'punishment'. Punishment can mean withholding something that the animal wants (i.e. Food, water, free movement) to increase or decrease a behaviour, or the more common idea of punishment would be doing something that will be unpleasant to stop a behaviour. 

     Many of the elephants were rescued from logging and tourism industries where they were brutally beaten into submission and depression. Please see our blog post on the effects of tourism on the asian elephant population for more ways to be a smart and eco-friendly tourist of Thailand and southeast Asia.  The elephants at ENP have now retired and are living out their days in relative peace and quiet. There are a few elephants that bear the scars of their previous jobs every day. For example, Lucky is an elephant who was retired from the circus life which has left her totally blind. It was a combination of floodlights to her sensitive eyes and likely violence as well. The eyes are a very sensitive and painful area of an elephant, and because of that they are often a target of intentional abuse to gain control of the elephant and break its spirit. Lucky now receives eye treatments at least twice daily, and is being conditioned to allow us to work on her feet. While elephants are very intelligent, they are also wary and dangerous. We have to be careful working around them and be sure that they feel safe. 

Jaclyn giving Lucky eye treatments under the watchful eye of another veterinary student volunteer from the US

     During our week with the elephants, one of the elephants was off feed and depressed. After doing a physical exam, testing the blood glucose, and testing the urine, the vets decided to give her some IV fluids with medication to help increase her metabolism and entice her to eat. One of the things I learned about administering IV meds to an elephant is that there are only 2 safe locations to place a catheter, in the femoral vein along the inner side of the leg, and the ear vein. We were told that femoral vein catheters are very unsafe unless the elephant is specifically trained to allow that. This was a very interesting process that involved a lot of team work and lifting over the head! I have come to appreciate my small animal catheters, pumps and resting cages! Just to add more interest to the story, these elephants all belong to complex social groups, and when one is restrained for a medical procedure they all must be restrained for our safety and for theirs. They get very upset and want to console their friend. Trust me when I say this can be a little nerve wracking! 

Jaclyn and I (Steph Pierre) using the ear vein to provide IV fluids, which are suspended from the bamboo pole in my hands

Dr. "P" showing off his handiwork 

     Jaclyn and I are very happy with what we accomplished working with elephants this week. The vets of ENP are truly intelligent and resourceful people, and we have learned a lot about organization, flexibility and preparedness. We are excited for our transition to the dog shelter, and we know we can be a lot of help there. To hear more about elephant cases, and to find out more about our time at the dog shelter, stay tuned for next weekend's update!
    

Enchanting Chiang Mai

Hello from Chiang Mai!

We hope everyone is doing well at home! We are now just north of Chiang Mai at Elephant Nature Park and we are absolutely loving it! Today was our first day so this post is to update everyone on what we were doing in the city of Chiang Mai the past couple days!

We flew into Chiang Mai Saturday afternoon from Bangkok's international airport via Bangkok Airways. After a smooth check in and a breeze through security, we were upgraded to the private lounge where we enjoyed free wifi, popcorn and other snacks and beverages! Our flight was delayed,  but only by 30 minutes and we were pleasantly surprised when they served us lunch! Our flight was only an hour long... Air Canada could certainly take a hint from theses guys!

We then caught a taxi to our hotel which was located about 20 minutes from the airport. Our hotel in chiang Mai was called Pat's Klang Viang and was very nice and vey clean! We really really liked it! Our breakfast was included and we enjoyed sitting on the patio in the morning before starting our day and of course, everything was delicious.  The women running this hotel were extremely sweet and polite, saying "please" before asking us of anything. We were also situated in a great location- just past the end of the Sunday walking market on Prapokkloa Rd. and only 7 minutes from the Elephant Nature Park office!

Saturday evening we started off by walking to the night bazar- a giant street market open every night selling all kinds of goods. Silk, spices, leathers, bags, suitcases and knock-offs are the main items you'll find and at incredibly low prices! We all bought stuff there and will definitely be going back in 2 weeks when we return to the city for a night. We found the market to be much nicer than in Bangkok. The people here are very friendly and are more willing to bargain. There is also a  lot less yelling and people trying to sell you tours and tuktuk rides!

Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai 

Wat Chediluang

Yesterday we had our day to explore chiang Mai and we definitely accomplished a lot! We woke up around 9 and had breakfast before heading up the street to see 2 wats- Wat Chediluang and Wat Phan Tao. We also looked at the 3 Kings Monument and went through the Chiang Mai Arts and Cultural Center, which was nice and had AC :) Then we walked quite a ways through town to the Raming Tea House where we had lunch and a cold tea-superdelish! Then we went even further to another wat and to a popular desert store in the middle of nowhere called Love at First Bite. They have tons and tons of pies and cakes so we shared 3 pieces- coconut cream pie, red velvet cake and Oreo cheesecake.  It was incredibly delicious and certainly made us feel better after so much time on our poor feeties. We decided to take a cab home since we had walked quite far and we were all very  hot and very tired- still only costing 150 baht or about $4 CDN

After a quick siesta (you definitely need that time to regroup before dinner) we headed back to another wat called Wat Phra Singh. Earlier in the day a student at the university told us another initiation ceremony for the monks would be happening that evening at 7pm- the same one we somehow missed while on our boat tour in Bangkok! Well, despite getting to the wat on time- there was no ceremony to be found and we were again left disappointed. Fortunately we were then right at the beginning of the Sunday walking market on Rachadamnoen road. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and tried the Koh Soi, as recommended by a friend. It is a northern Thai dish made with hand cut egg noodles in a creamy, spicy sort of broth (sort of like curry) with onions and chicken and deep fried egg noodles. Then we headed down the busy streets and looked at all the handmade goods for sale from the local Thai people! It was a fun night, finished off with the young Thai girls dancing and singing on a stage right outside our hotel!

Overall chiang Mai is much quieter and cleaner than Bangkok. I think we all really like it a lot, so if you are ever traveling here, don't let Bangkok turn you off if you go there first!

So far everything has gone pretty smoothly and we have felt pretty safe and non-threatened the entire time. The scariest thing is actually traffic. We have discovered that cars rarely stop for pedestrians- even at designated pedestrian crosswalks when they have a red light. We have been pretty cautious about looking both ways, crossing in smart areas and sticking an arm out to make sure they see us. 

That's all for now! Our next post should include some amazing elephant photos and details about our first days here at ENP so stayed tuned!

Cheers,

Lauren 

"Bye-Bye Bangkok"

Today we are flying from Bangkok to the northern area of Chiang Mai. We had a lot of fun being tourists in Bangkok, but I think it's safe to say that we are all ready to move on. We landed on May 30th in the afternoon, and thankfully all of our baggage did as well! After two days of flying we were eager for a shower and a bed. We found a licensed taxi stand to take us to our hostel in the urban/touristy area of Bangkok. After about an hour of crazy driving (on the opposite side of the road) we arrived at our hostel. We were very happy with the accommodations, complete with bunkbeds and hot showers. The first afternoon in Bangkok was spent exploring close to our hostel and going to bed around 8pm thai time. Party poopers for sure! 

Yesterday on the 31st, we took advantage of our day to be tourists. We started out by exploring the busy Khao San road street market - complete with every tourist trap out there. We spent a couple of hours shopping and haggling our way through the booths, and we each came away with some of the signature Thai pants (pretty much like flowy hammer pants.. Aka the best in the sweaty muggy weather). Think about how muggy Toronto is on a hot summer day, and that's Bangkok at 9am. We planned to visit the major temples in the area, so we were all wearing our long dresses. On our way to the Grand Palace we were approached by some of the typical scammers telling us the palace was closed and to go to their temple instead.. We were aware of this scam ahead of time and knew to ignore them. We approached a stoplight where we were met by a Thai man who started chatting with us about where we were from and how we were liking his country so far. This man took time to recommend us to a unique ceremony happening in the city for that day only, where the monks of Wat Kun Chan were being initiated and shaved their heads. He even drew us a map and told us where to go to avoid paying "tourist" prices and instead paying Thai prices. The man was genuinely kind and didn't appear to be scamming us, but we decided to take it with a grain of salt and continue on our way to the palace. At another crosswalk not even five minutes later we met a man and his wife who said the very same things about the ceremony. They praised the map the first man drew, and even added to it, including phrases that would help us to get Thai prices for things instead of tourist prices. They flagged us a Tuktuk (which you can google and read all about the scams/delights of those) and got us a very good rate to the Thai Station longboat pier where we could start the 1 hour boat tour around Bangkok and see this famed ceremony. This was our first moment of feeling unsure, but we didn't fly all the way over here to be afraid to be spontaneous! The tuktuk ride was a fun experience, and a fast and crazy way to get around. For 900 bht (thai price, vs 3000 tourist price) we hopped aboard the boat. Long story short, we did not see this ceremony, but we DID see many authentic Thai homes, more of bangkok, and a KOMODO DRAGON. We were disappointed we missed the monks, but we are still confident that the locals meant well and that maybe our timing was bad. 

Komodo Dragon

Tuk-tuk survivors

The boat tour ended back at the Grand Palace anyway, so all was well. Turns out a scarf covering your shoulders is not enough at the grand palace, hence the sweet bowling shirts in the picture below. Unfortunately we had our wires crossed and did not make it to the palace in enough time to enter before it closed, so we saved the entry fee and just walked around the outer yard for a bit. 

Lauren, Steph, Jaclyn, Steph outside of Grand Palace

Next on the list (now ~4:30) we headed back down the street to Wat Pho - the Reclining Buddha temple. This was a great experience, and we really enjoyed wandering around. 

All in all we are pretty happy with our experience in bangkok. Walking everywhere allowed us to experience some of the less touristy areas of bangkok, and we are proud that we took a few chances in order to have a more realistic experience. Bangkok was very hot and cluttered, and we are looking forward to the more rural areas of Chiang Mai. We hope our good luck continues in our travels, and will write again soon!

Steph Pierre