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!