VN June 2020

Vetnuus | Junie 2020 48 Life plus 20 without parole Mike Lowry Mike Lowry has been in veterinary practice for "life plus 20" years. In this column, he shares his experiences and opinions . Regulars I Life plus 20 With all the problems associated with lockdown, I thought perhaps a little lighter reading would be appropriate. So, the story of Jacqui! Many years back, shortly after I qualified, I was called to a local safari park to see an ailing lion. It was Christmas Day and there was a considerable audience when I arrived but fortunately the lion had died, which relieved a lot of the problems I had envisaged on my trip to the park. After a post mortem, which revealed a grossly enlarged spleen and the scaring possibility of anthrax, a diagnosis was eventuallymade of barbiturate poisoning. The effect of thiswas an unrealistic confidence inme by the park owner. I had no experience in most things veterinary and definitely nothing at all when it came to wildlife, but this confidence led to a call from a visiting circus a few days later. The circus owner, Terry Crispy had been referred tome by the safari park owner! The circus had an Indian elephant which had a suppurating wound on her right front leg at the level of the shoulder joint. When the animal walked it exuded puss, which dripped down the leg. All attempts, includingextendedcourses of antibiotics, had failed to sort theproblem out. On arrival at the circus I was warned by the elephant handler, Hans Muck, that Jacqui was very fractious and I should be extremely careful whendealingwithher.Thewoundwas evident froma distance but that was of little help. I decided that anaesthesia was the only answer. Following a meeting in one of the caravans it was decided that I should go ahead; the risk had to be taken as the SPCA was far from happy and the problemneeded to be resolved. With severe trepidation I darted her with what I thought was an appropriate dose of M99 and within a few minutes she fortunately fell onto her left side leaving the wound beautifully exposed to do what was necessary. The possibility of her falling onto her right side and having to be turned over had not even enteredmy naive head.The area was cleaned and opened up and to my joy a piece of wire about 30 cm long was removed. A drain was put in and the wound closed. Jaqui was given the antidote and stoodup shakilywithin a fewminutes. I packedmy bags and left. Ten days later I returned to remove the drain and approaching Jaqui with Hans he mentioned to me that she was showing all the signs of pleasure. “Come” he said in his broken English and heavy German accent, “come quietly”. When I got close to her she lifted her trunk and there were deep tummy rumbles. She never moved and allowedme to remove the sutures and drain without resistance. Some ten years later I met up with her again when she was retired to a sanctuary. She greetedme like a long lost friend. Jaqui, my granddaughters Erin and Jaimee andme, some 35 years after I operated on her. Some 35 years after I operated on her I was regaling the story to my grandchildren when they asked if we could perhaps not go and visit her. The necessary arrangements were made and the photo shows the results. Jaqui greeted me with screams and trumpeting on arrival and was very happy for the children to cuddle her; all 5 tons of her! Well, that picturewas some seven years ago and I posted the picture on Facebook. One ofmy beloved clients pleadedwithme to take her to see Jaqui, now at the age of nearly 70. Arrangementsweremade andonce again I was greeted very happily by a geriatric Jaqui. She is battling a little but still gets around. Then the current owner related another story of Jaqui and her 3 “siblings’. They had been imported from Indonesia in the late 50’s. On arrival they were put in the care of a German animal trainer who looked after then for four years before he returned to Germany. Some 30 years later he returned on a visit to South Africa. He called in at the sanctuary where Jaqui had been retired. He and the owner were chatting and the topic of elephant arose. The German mentioned that he had looked after four baby elephants all those years ago and that he had a whistle he had used to call them. He whistled and out of the bush came the four elephants. The reunionwas extremely emotional with the elephants slobbering all over himand he in tears. Yes, this is proof that elephants never forget. v