6/17/2005: Elephant doctoring

xoB/WaPo: these elephant handlers are building a bamboo splint for elephant Malai. Malai's front leg was broken in a collision with another elephant.

Malai is 98!

98 years old?! Holy shit!

I wonder whether Malai can appreciate that the splint is helpful, or if she'll do whatever she can to get it off.

fer cryin out loud.

These guys have a crane to hold up the elephant, and yet, they're just trying to tighten the splint by hand tension?? What about a come-along? Or a Spanish Windlass (in the middle pic are two of them)? Or even a Trucker's hitch?

Splint tighteners probably work cheaper.

And they are easier to replace if the elephant suddenly takes a dislike to what they are doing and squashes them flat.

wolf, what's a splint tightener? I mean, I get it. These guys are splint tighteners. But they should be using splint tighteners. That's what I was suggesting. The whole picture just looked so "no-tech" that I had some McGuyver ideas instead of a specialized tool. Well, except for the comealong.

At least with pure human force, they're probably guaranteed not to make it too tight.

I was struck by the fact that the left guy has his foot on the elephant's leg to get leverage. The elephant's leg is broken man! What are you thinking?!

Why not just a plaster cast?
Evidently the ones doing the doctoring arent actually doctors.

Plaster is stronger than humans.
Elephants are stronger than plaster.
Bamboo is stronger than elephants.

Bamboo kicks ass.

Collision with another elephant?!! Cripes, how do you have a collision with another elephant? They're hard to miss. "Sorry officer, the other elephant seemed to just come out of nowwhere!" Theres is, however, nothing worse than a high-speed elephant accedent. The roads over in Malasia are just as unsafe as here in the U.S. This elephant suffered a leg injury the other 'phant must have had major trunk damage.

Why the name change? Your funny bone (humerus?) was working just fine as Packey.......oh well. Funny shite. Welcome.

Packey was off his meds... he was asked to leave... Actually, Packey's my old clown name, and the last thing we need in here is another clown.

Just teasin', nobody get upset...you'll be no good to anyone if you all start crying.

You were a professional clown?

According to the kids, yeah. According to other clown...naw. Mostly birthday party gigs and such. Didn't last long. Everyone loves clowns once. The second time around...forget it.

this is disgusting. as milan kundera said, a society can only be judged on how it treats its lowliest members, and usually those lowly members are animals. how dare we watch this cruel treatment towards animals and do nothing? i am outraged, infuriated, and sad.

What, you think they should have just shot it to put it out of it's misery like a racehorse?

I cannot understand the lonely poet, what does he suggest? Suspension tank?

In Sri Lanka many highways are closed at night to stop cars running into wild elephants. This was probably the result of a fight between two bulls.

OOO wow!
A real live rule rebel.
Lets all register another name and have multiple web personalities.
Then we can:
1. Get the thrill of breaking the rules
2. Carry on conversations with ourself
3. Always have SOMEONE who agrees with us
4. Be able to feed the attention whore lurking deep within
5. Show everybody that it CAN be done
6. Introduce a whole new set of rules frequently to suit our individual preferences
7. Piss a bunch of cellarites off
........so there. Is that crying?

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnhowdy OOO wow! A real live rule rebel. ...

No harm done imo, especially if you announce the change.

OK My appologies.
That rule used to be posted on the site (unless I dreamed it), but I can't find it now.
It stated that once you had a handle it was permanent. None of my business at any rate.
Did I dream about these rules, UT?
Where were they posted?
Where did they go?
Not the first time I've suffered from hoof-in-mouth.
Appology accepted, Hobbs?

Not on this site. I even did it at one point, thinking that I would get more honest conversation as a regular user than as the "administrator".

If you wonder about multiple user titles, you should ask God, Saddam Hussein and several others what *they* think about it. Really. It might be kinda fun, actually.

Yes, it is now possible to mend a horse's broken leg. In some cases this is done, but as with the elephant there are difficulties when you have an animal that must be weight bearing on the injured limb. You can't reasonably maintain a horse in a sling for the time needed for the bone to reliably heal to the point that it is not going to snap again when pressure is put on it ... horses weigh around or over 1000 pounds. They are a lot more delicate than they look.

I believe that repair vs. putting down is determined in much the same way as totalling a car. Is the cost of surgeries and rehab less than the value (nonsentimental) of the animal?

And unlike dogs and cats, horses and elephants don't adapt well to the three legged thing.

This guy is brewing herbal meds for the old girl.
It looks like they have a large truck tire inner tube for her to lean against and a place to rest her head by hanging her trunk over it. Elephants don't sleep standing up normally so that will help her adjust.
An elephant this old can't be very valuable so it's got to be a labor of love....good for them.

We cool Cap'.

Thanks Wolf for the info. Whether I ask for a name change or create a new user name, the end result is still the same. Besides, with five posts under my belt with the other user, I could have easily killed off Packey, created Hobbs, and told nobody. No one would have missed Packey.

Appologies to everyone for bringing this thread off-topic. Shall we move on?

......moving right along............ I sure hope this ele makes it. You can tell that everyone involved is giving their all.
Let alone the broken leg the animal doesn't look too very good.
If only we could wave the magic wand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce This guy is brewing herbal meds for the old girl. It looks like they have a large truck tire inner tube for her to lean against and a place to rest her head by hanging her trunk over it. Elephants don't sleep standing up normally so that will help her adjust. An elephant this old can't be very valuable so it's got to be a labor of love....good for them.

BTW where did the elephant photos come from? I tried googling Injured elephant or Elephant broken leg and couldn't find the original article. (Noticed the last one was titled Image 4)

Wow, I was just in Thailand on holidays for 3 weeks. Chiang Mai, North Thailand. I spent my time at two different elephant camps. At the second camp (The Elephant Nature Park) they had a very sick Elephant called Siam. Siam had a few complications all at once. They used a pully system to hold her up, cause if she sat down for too long she would never get back up again. Unfortunately Siam passed away from heart complications a few days after I returned to Oz. So to me it looks like a pully system, even if you can't see it all.

It was one of the best holidays I've ever had. Helping sick, injured and abused elephants to live a much happier life, what they have left.

btw, The splint will work but it will take a long time. More complications will set in, cause she won't be able to lie down on her own. I hope she goes well and back to good health soon .

Elephant Doctoring has a different connotation where I come from. I.e. it only hurts if you catch your thumbs between the bricks
<O:p></O:p>

Leah. Glad you had a good time. It's a magic place the LOS.