Recently the veterinary doctors there successfully treated a wild elephant with a glass piece embedded in its foot, Army officials said here. Describing the operation carried out on the 4000 kilogram male elephant as "one of the most challenging one", AFVH Commandant Colonel Nawaz Shariff said, "It was difficult to work on a wild elephant suffering from pain. So we risked a very dangerous procedure to anesthetize it." "We ensured that the body temperature was kept low by constantly watering the animal," he said, explaining the efforts. Owing to its huge size, rendering elephants unconscious beyond 40 minutes can cripple it permanently. The fluids in the body get imbalanced and prolonged accumulation on one side make it difficult for it to stabilize on all the four limbs, Colonel Shariff added. But the elephant made a quick recovery once the shapenel was removed and returned to the forests. In two other cases involving wild animals, a wild bear cub and an orphaned elephant calf were also among those treated by the Army Vets. The bear cub was critically injured as a result of stone pelting by some village children when it accidentally strayed amidst them. Advanced ultrasonography on the cub helped in the prognosis and resuscitation. The elephant calf that was separated from its herd and was found in a state of hypovolemic shock due to dehydration, was treated and restored to forest officials at the nearby Kaziranga wild life sanctuary. Read the full report here.
Source: IBN Live, New Delhi.
