Several years ago, Michael and I went to our local zoo for an early morning visit. I remember this particular visit because of a funny incident in the elephant house. One big female was being examined by the veterinarian because she was pregnant. I was doing a lot of this kind of work every day at that time, just on a smaller scale. My patients were "only" one thousand to fifteen hundred pounds-horses and cows! It became evident that the zoo veterinarian was going to do a rectal examination on this elephant to get a feel of the fetus and help assess how the pregnancy was going. He placed a ladder behind her and got out the tell-tale shoulder length plastic glove. My husband laughed and said he likely had the only wife in the "audience" that wanted to jump right in and help-and had her own personal supplies to do so. We hung out and talked to the doctor after he was done. He said that this elephant was too early in her gestation (elephants are pregnant for about 22 months) to feel anything cool and his ultrasound unit was on the fritz. He was more just getting her used to the handling than anything else. It was pretty interesting.
Some basic procedures veterinarians take for granted as part of a standard physical exam in their patients just can't be done (or have to be done is some other way) when those patients are elephants. If an elephant weighs much more than 6,000 pounds, and many do, you can't auscult or listen to the heart by placing a stethoscope up to the chest wall. You also can't take an accurate rectal body temperature. Instead a temperature is measured on a freshly passed ball of manure, usually 97.5 to 99 degrees F. You certainly cannot palpate abdominal organs or use an otoscope to look at the tympanic membrane (ear drum.) Even just getting a body weight takes special equipment-truck scales are often used.
A typical examination of an elephant starts by simply watching the patient, observing behavior, gait and body condition from a distance. Discussing the patient with his or her handler is very important; they often know idiosyncrasies or what is or isn't normal for that particular elephant. For example, an elephant might flap their ears out of annoyance (kind of like a cat twitching the tip of their tail) or because they are trying to decrease their body temperature-an experienced handler better be able to tell the difference.
Elephants just naturally move all the time; swaying or weaving consists of moving back and forth, alternating weight from one leg to another and isn't likely a sterotypic behavior as it can be in horses or those wild cats you see pacing in their enclosures. Elephants need to do this to facilitate circulation from their limbs to their heart-a pretty great distance! One study showed that when elephants move from foot to foot, the "down" foot increases in diameter by 9%, causes the digital cushion of the foot to compress and forces the blood up the leg, greatly assisting return flow back to the heart. Pretty cool, huh?
Since you can't listen to a heart, feeling for a pulse on an auricular (ear flap) vein-normal resting pulse rate is 25 to 35 per minute. Normal respiratory rate is about 4 to 6 breaths per minute. Feet and teeth can be examined as part of the physical if the animals are trained to allow it safely.
Elephants have toenails, not hooves like horses or cattle. They and their cuticles should be kept trimmed and observed for cracks, misshaped or discolored nails. Elephants only have 6 teeth at a time (4 molars and 2 incisors,) but they get 6 sets of them through out their lives. It is normal to find that the skin of older elephants becomes de-pigmented and may develop freckles, particularly on Asian elephants. They also develop small warty growths on their trunks, again, a normal aging change. Male elephants are the only land mammal to have intra-abdominal (internal) testicles, found adjacent to the kidneys. It is important for anyone working around bull elephants to know of their "musth" periods-times when bulls, usually after age 15 years or so as they sexually mature and occurring once a year for 1 - 2 months, become aggressive, destructive and dangerous. Signs of musth are mood or behavior changes, decreased appetite, constant dribble of urine, temporal glands on the forehead become enlarged and draining, and a strong odor due to the glands and urine.
Captive elephants are vaccinated against tetanus and rabies and are routinely dewormed against intestinal parasites. They can get tuberculosis and herpesvirus as well as other infectious diseases. Elephants are just way cool animals and I thought some of these things were pretty interesting. I hope you, my fellow bloggers, found that as well.
Peace,
DrReneigh
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