An animal hospital in southern Thailand is in desperate need of saline solution as the number of the elephant patients has soared during the coronavirus crisis.<br /><br />The rescue centre in Krabi province normally treats around 10 jumbos at a time and they already large reserves of saline but during the Covid-19 pandemic, more animals are arriving.<br /><br />The head vet at the animal hospital, Benjatham Thaitham, said the increase is due to out-of-work mahouts bringing their elephants for check-ups, which then leads to more ailments being discovered.<br /><br />Benjatham said: ''Normally, only the sick or injured elephants would be brought here but after the coronavirus has spread many mahouts have brought their animals for check ups.<br /><br />"Now we need more than 100 bags of saline per day to treat up to 20 elephants which is almost double, compared with the normal situation."<br /><br />The vet added that most of the injuries that the elephants are suffering from are long term problems, which requires large doses of saline each day.<br /><br />She said: "The elephant's injuries usually take longer to treat, so they have to spend longer at the hospital and also need more saline.<br /><br />"We are now quickly running out of stock, which will be disastrous for elephants that need care."<br /><br />Sterile saline solution is used by vets to treat animals.
