Thai vets working to cure, protect elephants in the jungle

Having treated thousands of elephants, veterinary officer Taweepoke, however, cannot forget an injured elephant bearing a sharp pain in the dense bush 20 years ago.

"His two front legs were broken. I could do nothing but feed him pain reliever. We were not able to move him out from the deep jungle, neither did we have the medicine or equipment on site to save him from dying," said Taweepoke.

Facing with the world's largest land animal, the vet has seen the situation being slowly improved since then.

Covering an area of 320 hectares, the state-owned reserve is home to more than 100 Asian elephants in northern Thailand's Lampang province. It's a center for research and is at the forefront in treating sick elephants in Thailand.

In addition to an on-site hospital, elephants in distress are treated by a mobile clinic and rescue unit wherever they may be in the kingdom. As most domesticated elephants' health problems result from mahout's improper practices, the center also set up a mahout training school.

"We started from a small clinic with a leaky roof and a few medical boxes 27 years ago. With every help call, we set off never quite knowing what we would find and whether we could make a satisfactory treatment. It's exciting, scaring and distressing," said Taweepoke.

The vet called the job an adventure. "You never know what's around the corner in the remote jungle, especially dealing with a giant pachyderm. Sometimes you have to hide in a tree to keep yourself from its attack, and sometimes you have to stay there for a week just to treat the badly wounded until it can walk. I love the moment when I successfully save an elephant's life, it's wonderful."

"There is no specific subject on elephant study at the universities. Research in this area is far behind those on cats and dogs. Thailand is home to more than 7,000 elephants, while there are about 20 elephant vets around the country."

Warangkhana is one of the 20 and the only female vet in Lampang's elephant center. The 35-year-old has been working in the mountain and forest for 11 years after completing a six-year veterinary science degree.

With the help of mahouts, Warangkhana began her day by putting up a black cloth on wooden stakes to shelter her animal patient from the scorching sun. After injecting saline solution into the 82-year-old elephant, she started to clean the wounds on the pachyderm's feet.

The female elephant was badly hurt after being collided by another one. She suffered from osteoarthritis and was not able to walk. The wrinkled animal has been treated here for several years.

"It's a team work. Treating an elephant is never an easy job. For human beings or pets, we can use medical equipment. But it seldom works on a plodding pachyderm," said Warangkhana.

She still remembered her first patient in the deep jungle. The wild elephant fell into a stream and suffered severe injury on its spine while fighting with another.

"It took hours to reach that remote jungle to locate the elephant. We camped there for four days and set up a clinic, trying our best to make the elephant able to walk. But finally it died. It really hurt me," she said.

"Each failed rescue effort is a precious lesson. There is no elephant veterinary manual," the vet recalled with pity in her eyes. "It's all about passion and experience. Just think about I managed to rescue hundreds of the world's biggest land animals. That's cool and it makes me continue."

Xinhua