Dr Aon treating an elephant at Krabi Hospital
Following our successful first inspection at the STEF Elephant Veterinary Centre in Khok Kloi, which is on course to open soon, Dr Aon, our recently appointed veterinary officer, has returned to the Thai government’s Krabi Hospital to gain more valuable experience with elephants. She is giving her services for free at Krabi, where she is proving to be a huge asset to the team there.
Dr Aon says there are so many elephants brought all the way to the Krabi Hospital from Phang Nga and Phuket that she has no doubt that in future many will come to Khok Kloi. This will save many hours of transport for sick or injured elephants. Meanwhile, at Krabi she is seeing a wide range of cases and enjoying her work immensely. Although she treated elephants in her previous post with the Wildlife Friends Foundation, where she was Chief of the Veterinary Department, she is now wholly immersed in the health and care of the Asian elephant. You can read more about Dr Aon here
The final inspection and, hopefully, licencing of our Veterinary Centre at Khok Kloi takes place on 17th September, after which we can start clinical work. We now have most of the necessary equipment required to pass this inspection – for example a microscope, microchip readers (all domestic elephants in Thailand have to be microchipped) and surgical instruments. However, we still need to equip the laboratory with blood and biochemistry analysers, which cost around £16,000. If you are able to help us raise the money for this important equipment, please do consider making a donation.
The photos below (click on them to see the full size) show Dr Aon at work at the Krabi hospital
