Dec 22, 2010

This morning I woke to the sad reality of death. Som Boon passed during the night. Thumbing through my notes, I see that on day two of my time at ENP I saw Som Boon and jotted down in my book that she had “small ears” and decayed teeth.

The entire time I have been at the Park, Som Boon has been experiencing health problems. First she was not eating well, and then sores developed on the roof of her mouth. More recently she was not defecating. I had the opportunity to look in her mouth and saw that her top molars were missing large areas and were black with decay.

After a brain-storming meeting with Derrick and Jodi, a long-time American volunteer who lives at the Park, Derrick ordered a shredder for Som Boon’s food.  The shredder idea came from the experience of an emaciated elephant who arrived at the Sanctuary with a very poor appetite.

When Sissy came to the Sanctuary, she had difficulty masticating her food. We used a shredder to cut her hay into small “pre-digested” pieces. After several months her appetite improved, she gained several hundred pounds and she was able to return to eating non-shredded hay.

The goal was that Som Boon would benefit from the shredded hay but, unfortunately, she had stopped eating by the time the shredder was delivered. Staff tried many approaches to get her to eat, drink and defecate, to no avail.

During her necropsy, a large blockage was discovered in her large intestine. Estimated to weigh fifty pounds, the obstruction consisted of unmasticated and poorly digested pasture grass. The obstruction was completely dry, resembling a massive brick.

Som Boon had lived at ENP for more than seven years and was dearly loved by all. She will be missed by her entire ENP family.