Baby Elephant Gets A Prosthetic Leg

I saw this story a few days ago about a baby elephant that was fitted with a prosthetic leg in Lampang, Thailand, after losing a limb from stepping on a landmine. I just came across actual video of Mosha and her prosthetic leg on Green Daily, shown below.

The baby elephant was rescued when she was seven-months-old and brought to the Friends of the Asian Elephant hospital where she became the first elephant in the world to be fitted with an artificial leg in 2007.

Now aged three, Mosha is growing at such a rate she has now been fitted with a second prosthetic leg.

Stumbling around on three limbs at the world’s first elephant hospital, she refused to mix with other elephants and shunned food.

Doctors had feared the worst until she had a chance meeting with Dr. Therdchai Jivacate, who runs a foundation for human amputees.

Jivacate knew that Mosha would not survive as she grew heavier with age. “When she cannot walk, she is going to die,” he said.

Almost a year after her operation, Mosha eats 200 pounds of food a day and is growing so fast that doctors recently fitted her with a second, larger prosthesis.

After her daily exercises, Mosha takes a nap. The prosthesis is only removed when she sleeps.

I agree with Cat, who posted the video. The poor elephant does look stressed or confused. Hopefully it was just from the commotion and the multitude of handlers surrounding her at the time.

Source Telegraph UK

Posted by thuy