The week of February 24th the Chiang Mai University (CMU) Mobile Vet Clinic in partnership with the Thai Elephant Association Alliance (TEAA) responded to an emergency involving an elephant that had sustained injuries from drinking herbicide.
Dr. Siripat Khammesri with the Chiang Mai University Mobile Vet Clinic
With support from AES, our dear friend, Dr. Khajohnpat Boonprasert from the Chiang Mai University Mobile Vet Clinic, has teamed up with a second veterinarian, Dr. Siripat Khammesri. The two will both be traveling, providing veterinary care and health checks to Thailand’s elephants.
The addition of a second veterinarian is critical, especially during the pandemic that has left many elephants out of work due to the lack of tourists. Owners have taken their elephants back to their home villages and the mobile clinic is spending much more time on the road to care for these elephants.
One of their recent stops was to Surin Province, located in south eastern Thailand. There, the doctors collaborated with the Institute of Elephant Research and Healthcare services, livestock department and with the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. While on this mission, the doctors treated a remarkable 65 elephants!
Elephant from Surin Province surveys CMU Van’s trunk space
Veterinarians and Mahouts performing blood draw
In the photos from Surin province, you can see the doctors helping the local men and women perform blood draws from the elephants’ ears, which helps in determining an elephant’s overall health.
On the way home to Chiang Mai, they stopped at a Buddhist festival in Uthai Thani province to provide healthcare services for three elephants there. Treatments included NSAIDs for lameness and eye care medications.
Looking ahead, the two veterinarians will be able to travel to an extended area in northern Thailand, and be able to cover for each other for emergencies, on weekends and holidays.
With the use of the transport vehicle, both doctors will be able to serve Thailand’s elephants more effectively. We are proud to watch the vehicle AES donated to the CMU Mobile Vet Clinic be used, both effectively and efficiently. We hope you will follow along with us while we watch the impact of the mobile unit grow. AES thanks our donors who make such efforts happen. Thank you!
In March, tourism came to a screeching halt in Thailand due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This in turn resulted in the tourist camps closing and the mahout owners returning with their elephants back to their home regions, and in many cases to very remote areas.
Almost immediately a partnership was formed by the Thai Elephant Alliance Association and the Center for Elephant and Wildlife Research to provide medical care to all elephants including those that were no longer in areas or camps with veterinarians.
AES provided funding to both the TEAA and the CEWR to help with the additional visits, medicines and supplies that would be needed to help in this crisis. Part of that help was to provide first aid emergency med care boxes to elephant owners so that they could perform some health care themselves. TEAA provided food supplies for the elephants.
Throughout this time a total of 72 kits to help over 1200 elephants across Thailand have been distributed: some for communities where they do have some veterinary practitioners but most for camps and owners without veterinarians. And what do these big blue boxes contain to help Asian elephants? Wound dressing kits, pain killers, gastrointestinal drugs, ophthalmic drugs, vitamins, antibiotic injections, NSAIDS injections, among other medicines.
Dr. Khajohnpat Boonprasert, Center of Elephant and Wildlife Research, Chiang Mai University
If you have been following AES via Facebook and reading previous newsletters you will know that the CMU Mobile Vet Van that AES donated last year to the Center of Elephant and Wildlife Research has been extremely busy during the covid pandemic. In partnership with the Thai Elephant Alliance Association they have been able to help many camp owners and mahouts take care of their elephants when they would not have otherwise been able to afford veterinary care due to loss of tourism income.
Since March 2019 the CMU Mobile Vet Van has traveled about 58,430 km (36,306 miles) with 5,000 km (3,106 miles) of that during the covid-19 pandemic. That is a lot of trips and many elephants that have been helped thanks to the donations made to AES to provide the van as well as provide medical supplies during the crisis.
This month Dr. Khajohnpat Boonprasert of the Center of Elephant and Wildlife Research, Chiang Mai University has reported back about 2 of their recent trips.
“Friday July 3: CMU and TEAA staffs went to Mae Jame district for an urgent emergency case. A new born calf had gotten wound in abdominal and its intestines pulled out. We took 4 hours to arrive at the closest village to the calf. Unluckily, the calf died 2 hours before we arrived. Although, we could not save the baby’s life, we provided health care services for the other elephants there, such as a broken tusk case.”
“Monday July 6: Gastrointestinal distress/constipation in Asian elephants
A 45-year-old pregnant female elephant (Pang Tang-Mo) had suffered from GI discomfort in the middle of the night due to GI constipation. She could not pass her stool out normally and gasses in the intestine were continually built-up causing a lot of pain. The mahout team looked after her closely throughout the night. Our team provided intensive treatment with a painkiller, IV fluids, GI stimulants, encouraged movement, and performed rectal enema. She responded to the treatment very well and recovered the following day.
“This problem can be caused by various factors which including improper diet, inappropriate water consumption, low physical activities of elephants, etc. GI constipation/colic can even contribute to the life-threatening to the elephants in some severe cases. So the proper management whether elephant diets or encourage physical activities is very important especially during the COVID-19 pandemic which the activities of the elephant had been changed due to less tourist visiting.”
#ElephantHealthOurHeart
AES is assisting the Center of Elephant and Wildlife Research and the Thailand Elephant Alliance Association in helping elephant owners and camps to provide medical care to their elephants during their loss of revenue due to covid shutdown of tourism. The recent funds that AES has provided were used to provide free of charge medicine for the CMU mobile elephant clinic (that AES provided last year). The funds were also used to provide 30 First aid med-boxes for elephant and camp owners to treat elephants.
Shown below are some of the blue First aid med-boxes for the owners to treat their elephants. These photos were taken on a recent trip by the CMU mobile vet van to villages in Mae Jam district to help 100 camp elephants.
Dr. Yeaw of the Center of Elephant and Wildlife Research has reported that during the covid-19 outbreak, they have also corroborated with the Thai Elephant Alliance Association for helping elephants that need urgent veterinary services using the CMU Mobile Vet van that AES donated in 2019.
They recently treated an elephant that had been lame and non-weight bearing for many days. During the exam they found a chronic abscess and inflammation. They then opened the abcess, dressed the wound and applied anitibiotic.
In the online part of the course (22 April to 24 May 2019), we learned about anatomy, physiology, nutrition, endocrinology, ultrasonography, anesthesia, restraint, and breeding and parturition management of Asian elephants.
In June we participated in a 5-day practical course in northern Thailand. The first day (10 June) we had lectures on health care management, endotheliotropic herpes virus, nutrition, plasma transfusion and blood cross match at Chiang Mai University in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
The next days were practical training and demonstrations at the National Elephant Institute in Lampang, and Elephant Rehabilitation center, Pang Lah. On 11 June we had presentations on common health problems, tuberculosis, nutrition, and case studies in Sri Lanka and Thailand. From 12 to 14 June we studied rehabilitation, obesity, welfare, anesthesia, practiced using an elephant-like ultrasonography, semen collection, semen evaluation, estrus detection, reproductive hormone monitoring and calf management after parturition etc.
From this trip, we got the opportunity to hear a lot of elephant information and we got to share knowledge regarding elephant health care management from different regions. Therefore, your support is absolutely effective for us and for taking care of our elephants.
Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Asian Elephant Support for your kind support for our trip. Without your support we could not benefit from this training.
Best regards,
Dr. Moe Win Tun
Dr. Zaw Min Htun
The CMU Mobile Veterinary Van purchased with AES funds has been quite busy since its official inauguration this past March. Here are a few pictures of its progress in helping Asian elephants in Thailand (which, in turn, will extend to solving medical issues for elephants worldwide). Thanks to Dr. Yeaw for providing most of these photos.
You, our supporters, have made this all possible. Many thanks!
The van’s official inauguration at CMU on Thai Elephant Day
Van being blessed by a Buddhist monk
Examining and prescribing treatment at a remote camp
Collecting research data
We are excited to announce a new way to help us purchase a mobile vet truck for Chiang Mai University Vet Department to provide care for the surrounding area's elephants.
Dr. Yeaw performing a blood draw from the ear. Typically blood draws are performed from the ear, but they can also be done on the rear leg while the elephant is standing
Currently they are using one vehicle for 4 veterinarians to make house calls to local elephant camps. AES would like to provide them with a second vehicle to be shared among the vets and to make sure they have a backup in case one breaks down. The campaign is set to run for 10 days, from July 15th - July 25th.
We'd like to sell as many t-shirts as we can so please share this campaign with everyone you know and buy a couple shirts for yourself! This is a special, one-of-a-kind shirt only available for this fundraiser. It features our logo and the EREC logo in white on a charcoal grey shirt.
Thank you and we will keep everyone posted on the progress via our Facebook page!
(Left) Dr. Yeaw performing an eye exam
(Right) Dr. Yeaw with a newly collected blood sample
