While most of my patients are small animals, I have a special place in my heart for one of the world's largest: the Asian elephant.  I was given an amazing opportunity to work alongside elephant veterinarians at the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary to over sixty orphaned, abused and injured elephants. 

As staff veterinarian for Loop Abroad, I am a leader and teacher for high school and college students who are hoping to one day be veterinarians themselves. In this program, we spend time at the Elephant Nature Park treating the resident animals. In addition to elephants, the ENP is home to over 400 rescued dogs, nearly 300 homeless cats, a water buffalo herd, rabbit herd, a pony and one very large pig. Here, the opportunities for me to teach students and learn from the elephant vets are endless!

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain beating down on the grass roof of my hut.  Looking out the window I saw three elephants awaiting the arrival of their mahouts (those who take care of and control the elephants). I threw on my scrubs and rain jacket and headed out to the platform for breakfast. Coffee, Thai fried rice and veggie hot dogs started my day.

I gathered up my students for vet rounds and the five of us made our way to the veterinary hospital. Our first patient was a two year old elephant with a massively swollen left front leg due to a snare trap injury (pictured above). We helped him into the foot bath in which he had to stand for 10 minutes. He was amazingly tolerant and obedient for the treatment.

Patient number two had an injury to her right rear leg from stepping on a land mine. We scrubbed what weas left of her foot with iodine. Warning: Graphic image below. 

Next on the list was an elephant who suffered from an infected cut on her inner ear. The deep puncture wound was scrubbed and flushed. We made three large taramind balls and in each we put 20 capsules of amoxycillin (that's 60 capsules total!).

The final treatment of the morning was Mae Jan Peng - my favorite elephant.  She's one of the oldest at the ENP and is often picked on by other elephants.  She loves her mahout and is very fond of people. A flower in her ear is kept in the hole that remains from and old bull hook injury. She had a new abscess on her face which we cleaned out.

After lunch I took my next group of students to the dog hospital for vet rounds.  Here, dog after dog was brought to me for a physical exam, vaccines and treatments.  At the same time, I explained to my students everything I was doing and quizzed them along the way.

Nearly all the dogs were pale, likely due to anaplasma, a blood parasite transmitted by ticks that seems to be a pandemic amongst dogs in Thailand.  Many had pneumonia, another widespread disease during this time of year -- the start of rainy season. We had make-shift nebulization cages which allowed the most severely affected dogs to inhale antibiotics. At the same time, nearly a dozen dogs were being lined up for chest x-rays to assess the extent of their lung disease. 

The final treatment of the afternoon was a dog they called Zombie. He was one of the original dogs at the animal hospital, rescued from the floods in Bangkok in 2011. Story has it, Zombie was pronounced dead after being rescued on a boat but miraclously returned to life (hence the name Zombie!). Now an old man, he suffers from kidney disease and recieves fluids under the skin twice daily. 

I then made my way to the x-ray room where I taught my students about radiology and we read the x-rays that had been taken earlier in the day.  Unfortunately, I diagnosed all of them with some degree of pneumonia.  

It started to rain again as I made my way back to my hut to take a cold bucket shower. I ate dinner with my students, answering questions from the day and about my life as a vet in Australia. 

Then it was off to bed to rest up for another exciting day. 

Continue to Part II: PPVH vet in Thailand Week 2: Shelter Vet & Teacher