Elk Rescue!

I feel like Superwoman! This past Saturday I helped with the best rescue ever. And for those of you who are wondering what elk are doing in Texas, that was my first thought too. Elk are not native here, we assume they escaped from a nearby game ranch. Anyway, this elk desperately need our help.

After traveling almost 2 hours to get to him, we found the elk lying down next to a cabin on a sizable property. The owner of the property said he was limping pretty badly so we lined up to tranquilize him. As soon as we walked close to him, he got up and started running on hooves that were over a foot long! They had curled and were so long they were digging back into his legs. We lost track of him for a while, but I thought I heard him calling though the brush. We found him and I started tracking him for the next 15 minutes until we got to the top of the man's property where it was an open field. Just as Megan, the veterinarian got up to the field, he decided to try and jump the 4 foot fence that surrounded the property. His hooves caught on the mesh fence and he went down. Three of his legs and one of his antlers were caught. The dart bounced off his tough hide so I sprinted down to the truck and drove it back up with all of our med supplies. Megan gave the drugs to the elk through the fence and we waited for the elk to fall asleep.

After he went down, we went to work on his hooves. The tools we had brought with didn't come close to making a dent on his hooves, and some of the hooves had to be sawed down with a hack saw. Thankfully the neighbors stopped to help us out. Ryan, the other vet tech intern monitored the elk's vitals and tried to keep him cool while drawing up all of the meds like anti-inflammatory and antibiotic meds. I helped saw 2 of his hooves off and stabilize his legs while others worked on the sawing. We then scrubbed his wounds, pumped him full of meds, and then realized if he woke up there, he might try to jump the fence yet again. We decided the best place for him to wake up was down by the cabin near sources of water, away from the fences and roads.

Lifting an elk is MUCH harder than it sounds. We had 5 of us trying to lift a bull elk who probably weighed 700-800 lbs (over 350 kgs). It was nuts. We couldn't get him in the back of the pickup at first, but then I went with the property owner to get boards from his fence to use as a ramp. Even pulling and pushing him into the truck was a feat but we finally did it! Unloading him was a since, Megan reversed the tranquilizing drugs, and the elk woke up! According to the property owner, he's doing well and is walking on his own again!

Check out the amazing pictures Ryan took. We kept some of his hooves for souvenirs. Miss and love you all lots!