In May The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Mobile veterinary unit based in the Masai Mara treated an adult female elephant.  She had two calves, both males, with one aged  3 years and the youngest calf approximately 2 to 3 months old. The mother had extensive injuries on the entire ventral side of the abdomen with accumulative pus; with one of her udders completely necrotized and no longer functional. She was obviously in a great pain and could not keep pace with the rest of the herd opting to remain behind with her two young ones.  Her baby being very young was still wholly dependent on suckling his mother and we worried that the injuries to the udder would lead to agalactae (complete loss of milk from the mammary glands) and starvation for the calf.   Fortunately, one of the udders was not affected and remained functional so there was optimisim that with the appropriate treatment she could make a full recovery.   After treatment the Koiyaki-Lemek conservancy scouts continued to monitor her progress over the next weeks.

In June, a month after her first treatment, she was treated a second time and good improvement was evident.  Her two calves remained with her, and the youngest calf’s body condition looked surprisingly good despite his mothers injury which was most heartening.  It is believed she will make a full recovery thanks to the treatments from the Trust’s Mobile Veterinary Unit, funded by The Minara Foundation  working in conjunction with The Kenya Wildlife Service. .