An Australian veterinarian who goes by the tag, ‘jungle_doctor’ not only dedicates her time to helping wild life but also making prosthetic limbs for elephants.
The Jungle Doctor, Dr Chloe Buiting, has been helping animals, elephants being among the most effected, since 2018, in Thailand after being injured from land mines. Thailand-Myanmar is where most of these land mines are located.
Dr Buiting and her cutting edge technology is what actually saved these elephants who would have been euthanized for their injuries.
Buiting shadowed a vet team in Chiang Mai, Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) three years ago. Since 1993, FAE has been providing free care for elephants.
Working with FAE is where Dr Buiting came to learn about the creation of prosthetics for elephants.
Dr Chloe Buiting described the work done at the hospital to 7News:
’The hospital does ground breaking work that helps elephants who have lost their legs from landmines.’
‘With the help of prostheses elephants can learn to walk again and live full lives that would have otherwise been impossible. My time with them was an experience that I will never forget.’
Dr Buiting also explained that at night, the prosthetics are removed from the elephants so they do not have to where them 24/7.
’To do this, the leg is first coated in talcum powder before a protective sock is applied. Then, the padded prosthetic is fitted to the site, adjusted and tightened with a ratchet system’
She added:
‘It gives the elephants quality of life that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to have’
Thailand is not the only place that has been serviced by Dr Buiting. She says that some of the ‘most amazing experiences’ she has had was in Africa.
‘I was fortunate enough to work with a range of species, from elephants to rhinos and many others [while in Africa]. It’s just an incredible experience to work with such majestic animals.’
Unfortunately, she also describes that African is ‘an extremely brutal place’ because of the ongoing violence against wildlife.
Overall she explains that her time in South Africa was ‘particularly eye-opening’ to come to the aid of elephant threatened by poaching.
With over 166K followers on Instagram, Dr Chloe Buiting helps numerous other animals from elephants to Sloths.
We definitely needs more Dr Buitings around the world.
Check out how elephants broke into a farm and got drunk on corn wine.
