Reviewed by: Ned Gentz, MS, DVM, DACZM
Albuquerque Biological Park
Albuquerque, NM 87102, USA

It may at first seem to some that elephant foot care is either a mundane or narrow topic for an entire book. However, foot problems are seen in approximately half of all captive elephants at some point in their lives. Despite months to years of long-term treatment, chronic foot problems in elephants can lead to permanent disability, death, or euthanasia.

This book is the result of The First North American Conference On Elephant Foot Care And Pathology, hosted by the Oregon Zoo in 1998. Contributors are from zoos, circuses, elephant sanctuaries, universities, and colleges of veterinary medicine. There are 27 chapters divided into six sections: the context of elephant foot care, approaches to routine foot care, common elephant foot conditions and their treatment, surgical intervention for elephant foot disease, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory dosages for elephants, and conclusions and recommendations.

The take home message presented in this book is that foot problems in elephants are preventable, and prevention is highly preferable to treatment. Lack of exercise, long hours standing on hard substrates, and wound contamination from standing in their own excreta are major contributing factors to many elephant foot problems.

In some regards, this book just scratches the surface concerning elephant foot care (several chapters are simply single-animal case reports). When taken all together, however, the chapters show the gamut of problems that can be seen and the many ingenious ways of dealing with them that are being invented by creative elephant care specialists. This book is recommended to anyone who has to deal with captive elephants on any level, or to anyone with a general interest in these fascinating animals.

163 pages. $59.99 (U.S.). Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, USA. 2001 http://www.isupress.com

Reviewed 3/26/2002