Case Studies

An African elephant calf (aged 6 months) was found trapped in a well and separated from the rest of the herd, near the Kenya-Tanzania border. She possessed large, infected wounds on the dorsal lumbar and scapular regions of the back, under the mandible and her trunk had been mutilated by hyenas. She also exhibited signs of a possible Klebsiella pneumoniae infection and suffered from loss of appetite and was generally fearful. She had already been given two sets of antibiotics and the vets were reluctant to prescribe another, since in immuno-compromised calves, a long course of antibiotics can be as likely to kill the calf as is the infection.. The first antibiotic used was amoxycillin for seven days and second antibiotic was clauvulanate amoxycillin used for a further seven days.

A month following Sinyas' rescue, she was still in a bad way. There were concerns that septicemia would set in and she was still very depressed. It was decided that Sinya was to be given the opportunity to use a self-medicative regime with essential oils and herbal extracts, in which she determined both the substance, the route of administration and the respective dosage. A total of 14 substances were chosen over the course of 14 day treatment, the most prominent being Illite clay (wounds) and garlic (infection) and violet leaf (anxiolytic) essential oils, the former applied topically and the oils being both inhaled and ingested. Approx 25ml of undiluted garlic essential oil was ingested over this period, with a range of approx 0.5-5ml per offering. After the first day of treatment the operation scheduled to clean her wounds was cancelled and by the end of the two weeks her wounds had completely healed, no longer showing signs of infection and exhibiting no further neurotic tissue. Instead the wound had formed healthy granulation tissue, providing a protective covering. Under normal conditions, if septicemia had not set in first, her wounds would have been invested with maggots. In addition, Sinyas' behavior become comparatively playful during the second week of treatment (she had been selecting oils that affect behavior). Subsequent correspondence has not reported any relapse in any of the conditions.

We concluded that this case study suggests a possible ability of elephants to self-medicate and for this to be explored further for potential use by wildlife-vets. We postulated that as the calf had realistically never come into contact with most of the substances, her self-medicative behavior in respect to the essential oils was most likely innate, perhaps mediated by the olfaction via the vomeronasal organ (before ingesting she exhibited a flehemen-like response). A potential mechanism in selecting Illite clay is harder to elucidate as there are no volatiles in this substance. However, further studies are needed to confirm the link between olfaction and self-medication.

No ethical concerns can be raised from this method because firstly, the risk of prescribed conventional medicine was extremely high and secondly, Sinya had the opportunity to distance herself from all the substances offered.

A report can be read at the Sheldrick Trust website HERE