Veterinary Study Abroad in Thailand

This trip was such an unforgettable experience because it combined traveling to Thailand, learning veterinary skills, and helping others! I participated in Loop Abroad’s College Veterinary Service in Thailand, which is a two week study abroad program for pre-vet students. I spent the first week at an elephant sanctuary, where I met the inspirational owner, volunteered to clean up the park, shadowed the elephant veterinarian, fed the elephants, studied their diets, and worked with a wide variety of animals! I went to an animal clinic at an animal shelter for the second week of the program, where we had lectures, laboratories, and hands-on practice with dogs and cats in the mornings then explored Chiang Mai in the evenings! I learned many, useful skills here including catheter placement, blood draws, blood smears, fecal flotations, vaccine injections, drug dose calculations, physical examinations, proper restraint, and subcutaneous fluid administration.

Monday June 3: Arrive at Elephant Nature Park

As soon as our bus from the hotel pulled up to the sanctuary, I was surprised to see so many elephants, dogs, cats, and cows roaming around the land together. They were not kept in separate cages; they were all allowed to roam freely, which was an incredible sight! This animal sanctuary has rescued elephants, cows, water buffalo, dogs, and cats from abuse. Lek, the owner, was there with her teacup dogs that she said were rescued from puppy mills. She had a Pomeranian, Chihuahua, Frenchie, Yorkie, and more tiny dogs that were too small and had health problems so they stayed with her. However, many of the larger dogs are allowed to roam the property freely. They have some dogs that are kept in an animal shelter on the property, and volunteers can help walk these dogs at 10:30am and 3:30pm every day.

When we arrived, we had to first learn about the basic safety techniques for interacting with elephants. We learned that Elephant Nature Park has over 80 elephants that were rescued from circuses, trekking, illegal trades, logging, and other forms of abuse at the hands of humans. When you are near an elephant, you must always stand where she can see you. Do not stand directly in front of an elephant’s trunk; stand slightly to her side since her eyes are on the side of her head. You should respect an elephant’s space, and you should not touch her trunk unless you are giving her food. The goal of a sanctuary is to serve as a place where animals can live as safely and naturally as possible for the rest of their lives, so minimal human interaction from tourists is appreciated. We learned that elephants are very intelligent animals; they pass on knowledge from generation to generation and have a similar lifespan as humans. They focus on rescuing one elephant at a time so they can help her adjust to the new herd. The elephants often arrive with physical, emotional, and mental problems from abuse. After the elephant safety lesson, we volunteered for the 3:30pm dog walk at the animal shelter. All of the dogs were very friendly, and it was amazing to walk them right by the elephants!

Tuesday June 4: Elephant Walk and Dog Clinic

At 8:00am, we went on the Elephant Walk, which is a guided tour of the sanctuary. We learned the difference between Asian and African elephants; this sanctuary has Asian elephants, which are smaller than African elephants. We also saw cows, water buffalo, and dogs roaming the land with the elephants. A mahout is a person who guides the elephant and serves as her trusted leader. We learned that females remain with their mother for life in the same herd, but males leave the herd at 9-18 years of age. Elephants’ brains are so developed that they get depressed when a family member passes away, and they walk around their graves to avoid stepping on them. Over 50 years old is considered an elder, but the oldest elephant at this sanctuary is 104 years old. We saw an elephant that lost her ear from an open wound infection. We also saw a young elephant with a bandage on her foot because her foot was caught in a snare trap prior to being rescued. The tour was one and a half hours; it was very educational and we were able to take amazing pictures with the elephants.

In the afternoon, we went to the dog clinic. I thought it was very different than the United States that everyone must remove their shoes before entering the clinic. When we were there, we watched a spay surgery on a dog. The spay surgical procedure appeared to be basically the same as those I have seen in the United States. The veterinarian used a sophisticated suture to close the wound where the sutures were hidden in the skin. Then, we went to a room with smooth, slippery floors so paralyzed dogs can get around. They do not euthanize in most of Thailand, so this is a way for these dogs to live out the rest of their lives. Some issues that arise from being a paraplegic dog include pain from dragging their hind limbs, incontinence (or loss of control over urination and defecation), infection from sitting in their own urine, and pressure injuries from sitting on their bones. We also learned that in Thailand, vet school is 6 years after high school instead of 8 additional years of schooling. While I was shadowing the small animal veterinarian, she traveled to find 2 dogs at the sanctuary with chronic kidney disease so she could administer subcutaneous fluids to help prevent dehydration.

Lek, the founder of Elephant Nature Park, gave a speech to the volunteers that evening. She wants to spread the word of eco-tourism, which is traveling and volunteering at sanctuaries like this one rather than being a tourist who participates in trekking (riding on elephants) and other forms of animal abuse. She explained that she rescues elephants from logging, religious ceremonies, circuses, painting shows, and trekking. After a flood in 2011, she began rescuing dogs as well that had been left without a family. Cows and water buffalo on the property had been rescued from slaughter houses. Elephant Nature Park needs more money and more volunteers in order to rescue more elephants. Visit https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/ to learn more!

Wednesday June 5: Diet Analysis

I stayed with one elephant from 8:00am-3:00pm to study her diet and behavior. I watched Pikun, a 50 year old elephant rescued from trekking. I even noticed scars on her ankles from where her owners used to tie her up with chains before she moved to the sanctuary. In the morning, she ate rice balls with vitamins since she is considered an elder. Throughout the day, she ate watermelons, sugar cane, corn stalk, and balls of oats with bananas. Elephants are monogastric hindgut fermenters like horses and rabbits. Pikun stayed with her best friend all day, a 70 year old elephant. This elephant had a compressed ribs injury from trekking (tourists riding on her on a heavy bench). I watched them swim in the river with 5 other elephants, and they all seemed to get along swimmingly! Then, they loved playing in the mud, which helps protect their skin from sun damage. Throughout the day, Pikun made funny, motor-like noises when her mahout told her not to go somewhere, but it was amazing to watch him lead her with kindness and positive reinforcement. Pikun rested her trunk against a wall when she got tired, and we learned that elephants do not typically lay down to sleep. She was very calm while tourists came up to her, stood near her, and pet her while taking pictures. Tourists fed her lots of watermelons, which she seemed to enjoy! During the day, we also saw the veterinarian attempting to get an x-ray of an elephant’s injured foot, which she attempted to do with positive reinforcement and distracting the elephant with fruit, but it was still extremely difficult. After the diet study, we analyzed fecal and urine samples from our elephants. We analyzed the texture and color of the poop. For the urine, we did dip sticks to test glucose, ketones, pH, and urobilinogen/ bilirubin.

Thursday June 6: Volunteer Service

This was a service day, which is when you volunteer to shovel poop and old food to help clean up the park. We worked for 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon. I honestly didn’t mind doing the work because the time went by quickly, and it is for a good cause. Then, we had a lot of free time to nap since working in the hot sun was exhausting. In the evening, we painted pictures of elephants.

Friday June 7: Local School Visit and Elephant Veterinarian

At 8:00am we got to feed bananas to the elephants. It was amazing being so close to them and feeling the rough skin of their trunks as they take the bananas out of your hand and happily toss them in their mouths. Elephants really can be such gentle giants. The first elephant that we fed was named Sri Nuan, and she ate 3 unpeeled bananas at a time. The second elephant was a picky eater: she ate one peeled banana at a time, and she needed her bananas to be perfectly ripe. It’s so interesting how they have such distinct personalities. From 10:00am-11:00am, we visited the local school during their recess and it was so much fun! The kids were so cute and friendly! They were performing dances, offering massages, making bracelets, and selling snacks. We also saw them singing in a classroom. This school has 15 teachers and 210 students.

That afternoon, we shadowed one of the elephant veterinarians, who also treats cows, horses, and water buffalo. With the horses, we brushed them, picked their feet to clean their hooves, painted antibacterial coating onto their hooves, and used a stethoscope to listen to their heart rates (28-44 beats per minutes is normal for horses, since large animals typically have slower heart rates). We also felt a horse’s pulse on his mandibular artery, listened to intestine sounds (borborygmic), and watched the vet bandage a horse’s hoof with gauze and duct tape.

My favorite part was when the vet let me clean out an elephant’s foot that occurred when the elephant stepped on a land mine prior to being rescued. This elephant, Tycoon, was 23 years old and very happy despite walking with a limp. The vet explained that he sees Tycoon twice a day: once in the morning to give her pain medication and wrap her foot, then once in the afternoon to clean out the wound. When we were there, Tycoon had just finished playing in the river and in the mud. She was trained to walk into the enclosure and sticker her foot into a hole where the vet could clean it while someone else was feeding her watermelons to distract her. I love how the vet uses positive reinforcement while treating his patients. The vet removed the bandage then he let me rinse the wound with water, an antimicrobial soap, and saline. We injected the cleaning solutions into part of the wound on the side of the foot and it came out the bottom of the foot, which shows how severe the wound is. This cleaning will help prevent infection.

Then, the vet took us to see a 50 year old elephant with an eye ulcer. He fed her oat balls with vitamins since she is an older elephant. The veterinarian also explained that they typically draw blood from elephants’ ears since it is the thinnest skin. In the evening, we watched the documentary Love and Bananas, which revolves around Lek and the difficult process of rescuing elephants from abuse. It was very educational, inspiring, and heartwarming; I highly recommend it! I was amazed to learn that Lek’s parents owned a trekking company, but she exposed how they abused their elephants. Her parents disowned her, which is very sad but it is inspirational that she chose to help elephants instead of hurt them, even if that meant going against her family.

Saturday June 8: Cat Kingdom and Elephant Kitchen

At 8:30am, we went to the cat clinic to have a lesson about medicine for cats and work with the cat veterinarian. Our veterinary supervisor, Dr. Kristina, explained that cats are obligate carnivores, so they need protein in their diets. For the physical exam, you should restrain cats by scruffing them or using a kitty burrito blanket. You should go from head to tail and start by checking their eyes, nose, and ears for discharge or abnormalities. Check gums and teeth for color and plaque. Feel the throat to make sure thyroid glands are not enlarged because that could indicate hyperthyroidism. With this condition, a cat could have excessive weight loss, a larger appetite, polyuria (excessive urination), or polydipsia (excessive eating).

In the physical exam, the vet should palpate the abdomen because they do not want to feel enlarged or hard organs. The most common heart disease in cats is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is when the muscle walls become too thick. Hepatic lipidosis is fatty liver disease, and a cat with this condition will show icterus (the animal version of jaundice which is a yellowing of skin due to bilirubin accumulation). The pancreas has endocrine and exocrine functions. Endocrine capabilities include insulin and glucagon. If cats have diabetes, it is generally Type II, meaning they do not respond to insulin. Cats can become diabetic if they are obese. You can treat diabetic cats with diet management and weight-loss. Exocrine functions of the pancreas revolve around digestive enzymes. The kidney’s purpose is to filter blood/ urine as it removes excess potassium, BUN, and creatine (enzymes) from the blood and out through the urine. If a cat has chronic kidney disease, they will likely be polyuric and polydipsic, so you should administer fluids and put them on a special diet. If a cat’s urethra is blocked from stones, tumors, or stress, the urine can back up into the blood, potassium can build up in the body, and the sodium potassium pump in the heart can malfunction. This is more common in males and can be treated with medication or surgery.

We also got to help the cat veterinarian treat cats with chronic kidney disease. I had seen animals receive fluids before, but this was the first time I administered the subcutaneous fluids to the cats myself, which was very exciting. You “tent” the skin with your hand, poke the needle in parallel to the body, and let the fluids run in. We also saw cats with hernias, dislocated shoulders, and collapsed tracheas. At 1:30pm, we went to the elephant kitchen where we helped prepare bananas and watermelons. Then, we went to feed the elephants some bananas.

Sunday June 9: Travel Day

This was our last day at Elephant Nature Park. We presented our speech on Pikun’s diet to the other students and took a group picture in front of some elephants. One elephant even photobombed our picture! Then, we took a bus to our hotel in Chiang Mai. We went shopping at the Sunday Night markets that evening, where we bought some pants, skirts, elephant statues, and jewelry.

Monday June 10: Small Animal Clinic

We had a lecture on physical exams and SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment, and plan) from Dr. Kristina. Normal state for a dog should be 100.5-102.5 degrees Fahrenheit body temperature, 10-30 breaths per minute, 70-180 beats per minute heart rate, and 1-2 seconds capillary refill time. For hands-on experience, we gave physical exams to dogs with alopecia, listened to their heart rates, and it was my first time taking a dog’s temperature. The skills we got to add to our repertoire included animal restraint, canine physical exams, pupillary reflex assessment, open gloving, sterile technique, and drug dosage calculation. In the evening, we took a bike tour in the Old City and had dinner.

Tuesday June 11

We learned about the heart in lectures, then did a lab where we dissected pig hearts, which was really amazing to visualize the structures hands-on. We had a lab where we practiced subcutaneous injections, intramuscular injections, and fine needle aspirations on tomatoes. We practiced blood draws and intravenous catheter placement on tubes with running red water. For hands-on experience, we drew blood from dog patients (canine venipuncture in cephalic vein), which was amazing to be able to practice these clinical skills on real animals. We also did a sutures lab to practice suture patterns on mouse pads. That night, we went to the Night Bazaar markets, where we got massages and bought souvenirs for our friends and family.

Wednesday June 12

We learned about eye and skin issues in small animals; then we practiced blood smears and SNAP tests. Blood smears have always looked easy when I watch vet techs do them, but it is more difficult than I expected. You have to have the exact right angle when you smear the blood on the slide, but I got the hang of it after a few tries. The SNAP tests uses blood from the blood draw and tests if the dog has Lyme disease, Ehrlichia, Anaplasm, or heart worms. Dr. Kristina did a demonstration on ear cytology, fine needle aspirations, and skin scrapes.

In the evening, we went to the Wat Suan Dok temple, which was all white, gold, and breathtaking! We had a meditation lesson from a monk. He explained that Buddhism is actually a philosophy, not a religion, because Siddhartha Buddha was not a god. He talked about how you have to stop dwelling in order to eliminate suffering and reach nirvana or enlightenment. He also emphasized balance, meditation, and karma. Monks train their moral, mental, and wisdom in order to learn, practice, and teach Buddhism. I was surprised that females are actually allowed to become monks; they just can’t live with the males. Monks have over 200 rules they must follow; they are not allowed to have sex, eat excessive amounts of food, or buy many different outfits, but they are allowed to use cell phones.

Thursday June 13

I love surgery day! In the morning, we were on the anesthesia team for a female canine spay surgery. I did the drug calculations, inserted the catheter, and scrubbed the surgical area with betadine and alcohol before surgery. Other students administered IM acepromozine and SQ tramadol pre-op. During the spay, I recorded SPO2, heartrate, and respiration rate every 5 minutes. I administered pedistrep subcutaneously post-op, then another student administered SQ toramic. We learned that dogs usually wake up cold from surgery due to cold fluids and oxygen entering the body during the spay, laying open and exposed to room-temperature air, and the body being asleep so it can’t compensate by shivering. To prevent hypothermia, many veterinarians wrap the animal in blankets to help reheat her after being spayed.

In the afternoon, I was on the surgical team for the male dog neuter where we did a “sterile” scrub and washed our hands for 5 minutes before putting gloves on. During surgery, the veterinarian was nice enough to let me clamp the vas deferens and use the blade to cut off the testicle. Neuters are much quicker and less invasive than spays.

That evening, we had a Skype call with a pre-vet director who gave great advice about applying to vet schools. I will make a separate blog post all about advice for pre-vet students once I finish my vet school applications. We also got henna tattoos that night, which was really unique and fun! The artist was so talented!

Friday June 14

We were on the surgery team for the cat spay in the morning, and I got to clamp and cut the uterus. Between surgeries, we had a lab with a string to practice the figure 8 knot used in male feline neuters. That afternoon, we were on the anesthesia team for the cat neuter. I administered the intramuscular acepromazine injection pre-op, tied and held the legs during the surgery, and injected subcutaneous tonamic post-op.

Saturday June 15

We went zip-lining through the jungle and went to a temple to celebrate a successful trip on our last day in Thailand!

I loved being able to work so closely with elephants, greatly improve my clinical skills by working with dogs and cats, and experience a different culture in Thailand! I enjoyed every minute of this study abroad, and I will never forget everything I learned about elephants, dogs, cats, Buddhism, and Thai culture. The veterinary skills I developed here will be extremely useful as I continue my journey towards becoming a veterinarian. If you visit Thailand, I highly recommend going to Elephant Nature Park or another elephant sanctuary. I hope I get the opportunity to return to Thailand some day! You can watch the video I made below that illustrates some of my favorite moments from this trip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUpWmQJPEU8