These are the next posts that came up after Buckles deferred to John Herriott:
We now have metal knobs and bolts,(I wonder if them cutting the trunk as the reason for the protection) plus vitamin deficiency added to the mix of paralyzed trunks. I wonder where Johnny Herriott is with his thoughts?
Regards,
Wade Burck
Dan,
I like "trunk lameness". It sounds more politically correct then "trunk/beak paralysis." Should we add "metal intoxication" to metal knobs, bolts, and vitamin deficiency to the list that gets longer and longer? Sure hope Johnny gets here soon.
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By the end of the day, a picture Joey was kind enough to send on a unrelated subject was posted, and still no word from Johnny Herriott or additional insight from Buckles Woodcock on the subject.
Is it beginning to look like some one is hiding from or ignoring something? Don't forget the initial response was a shot at another elephant trainer and a country. The wrong one at that. I I was hoping the issues of "lame trunks" and "ruptures" would be addressed as I was led to believe Buckles Blog was a repository for circus history. I ran one more post, let's see if the gentlemen it is addressed to get a chance to see it, and hopefully offer their thoughts:
Joey, Don, and Dan,
As you gentlemen are elephant trainers/handlers of some note, what are your thoughts on the "prolapse/rupture" that Jim Z noted and asked about? Don and Dan have already offered their thoughts on the trunk issue, Joey. What do you think is the cause in captive circus elephants, the larger percentage from Great Britian as Buckles blog has inadvertently stumbled upon, that don't push sharp edged wagons, or drink water left if in a pipe over night, and get the same "vitamins" that their stable mates have gotten over the years.
Best wishes,
Wade Burck
Posts
Wade, Amodern study of your question can be made using two Ringling elephants. Rebecca and Zina, both from Billy Smart in England. Zina is totlly paralyzed and at the CEC now. Does anyone know the status of Rebecca?
Our elephant Jean can't curl her trunk but everything else works fine. I had a guy tell me she was being lazy or the muscles weren't worked properly. I told him that both these cows lift logs and various other things around the park for the maintenance and tree dept., what's any better excercise than that buddy!
I recall long ago asking Smokey Jones about photos of circus elephants wearing thick leather pads over the front of their head and upper trunk. (I have I have sometimes seen similar photos on this blog.)
He said it was to protect the elephants when pushing very heavy circus wagons that had bolts or other metal knobs protruding from the rear. He said that without the pads the elephants would eventually wind up with paralyzed trunks.
As I have never seen these pads in person, (or even know what they were called), how about some comments from someone who has remove a wagon or two from deep mud?
Don Bloomer
Another possibility for trunk lameness MAY be metal intoxication.
Some water pipes, early in the morning, may contain rather a lot of metal, due to the fact that the water can be below zero pH, when water "sucks up" metals. (compare the sexties when a lot of people got metal poisoning from aluminuim jars with sour orange juice).
If, by bad luck, an elephant gets enough of metal, theres a tendency that it moves out to a muscle which is heavily used, and it may permanently damage that muscle.
Nowdays, I often messure the pH of water for every new elephant location. IF the pH is below zero, then I try to messure the level of metals.
In any case, its vise to let the water run some time, before letting the elephants drink, I think, in order to avoid the risk that you feed water which has been in the pipes over the night.
//Dan Koehl
Joey,
Is Jean the elephant whose picture was posted a short while back, as an example of what was going to be used in a photo exhibition of elephants? It was just a head shot.
Regards,
Wade Burck
P. S. Billy Smarts means you are narrowing it down, and getting out of Europe