Elephant Madhubala to be operated upon by vet team in Karachi

FOUR PAWS experts. to  perform innovative super-size procedure
Karachi/Vienna, 17 August 2022 – Vets and experts from global animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS have returned to Pakistan to provide urgent pain relief for four female African elephants in two zoos from 16-19 August.
Upon invitation of the High Court of Sindh, the FOUR PAWS team will perform a complicated and unique major surgery on two elephants in Karachi Zoo, Madhubala and Noor Jehan.

Madhubala in particular is suffering from pain caused by a broken tusk infection.

At Karachi Safari Park, elephants
Malik and Son received treatment of their feet and nails.
The medical treatment is an important step to improve the wellbeing of the elephants, who are the last four captive elephants in the country.

FOUR PAWS supports the local authorities and elephant
caretakers to ensure all four elephants can live a better life in Pakistan.
FOUR PAWS vet Dr Amir Khalil is being led a team of veterinarians and wildlife experts, including Dr
Frank Göritz and Dr Thomas Hildebrandt from the Leibnitz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW). who headed the surgery, and Dr Marina Ivanova from FOUR PAWS.
16 and 17-year-old Noor Jehan and Madhubala at Karachi Zoo are suffering from severe dental problems.

Instead of a traditional approach, the team is planning to use a less invasive, unique new technique that requires less complicated aftercare, given the conditions at the zoo. They are going touse specially designed drills and endodontic burs along other dental instruments.
“Their tusks are broken, and the tissue inside the wounds is inflamed and infected. They are in a lot of pain and without treatment the inflammation will expand and cause blindness or even brain damage, and death. We will put the elephants under standing sedation, remove the dead tissue, clean the root canal, and teach the local caretakers how to conduct regular post-treatment flushing and how to clean the wounds to prevent further inflammation. We expect good results for the elephants’ recovery. This is a very important step to improve their wellbeing,” says Dr Khalil.
Elephants Malika and Sonia at Karachi Safari Park suffer from cracked and overgrown nails and
footpads and abscesses which the team treated and qave aftercare instructions to the local team.
The experts provided an assessment on the wellbeing and health condition of the elephants in
November 2021.
“Our recommendation includes that all four elephants should be reunited at Karachi Safari Park once they will recover from the surgery. Also, they need a species-appropriate diet and enrichment must be provided.

We are also helping to train the local caretakers so they can take the best care of the elephants. We are happy to help with any further improvements to implement our recommendations, adds Dr Khalil.