Treatment of hoof disease in an Asian elephant(elephas maximus) using creative surgery:a successful case report

Abstract: An Asian elephant at Youngor Zoo in Ningbo sufferred from a disease called hoof disease, it characterized that the part of pad fallen off. This disease deteriorated rapidly, and then affect the whole body. With the poor effect of strengthening the nursing of the foot , we fixed elephant′s foot by using artificial steel plate and sternal wire. At the same time,we also adjust the formula of elephants food, improve the environment of the captive and trim the its hoof properly. The great treatment result shows that the method can be initially applied to the treatment of hoof disease. This report shows how the utilization of plate and can be extremely useful for treatment of this condition in elephant.