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Since we’ve known Mara, she has always had an issue with her wrist that we monitor. As she’s aging, we notice that she’s walking a little slower and has a slightly decreased range of motion in her right hip and knee. Because she’s been a little bit stiff, Mara is currently taking joint supplements and low-dose oral pain medicine for her mild discomfort, and we are also doing acupuncture. Her caregivers decided it would be worth it to try the PEMF pad that Rana has been using for her feet. The goal is to get Mara to stand on it for 30 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week. 

When we first began testing the pad on Mara, we simply wanted her to get used to having the pad in the treatment stall with her. She initially wanted to kick it and, because of where the caregivers were standing, she also thought they were asking her to present her feet for trimming. It seemed hard for her to believe that we were simply wanting her to stand there and nothing else. That type of behavior can often be the most difficult to train an elephant for since they just keep offering you other things to find out what you want. On her first try, she stayed on the mat for 5 minutes. 

The second time we placed the mat in the treatment chute with her, she quickly realized that snacks came fairly regularly if she kept her foot on the pad–so we were able to complete a 15-minute session. She was also comfortable enough to allow regular foot trimming simultaneously, so that was a bonus for the caregiving team. Mara is a great treatment partner and she’s among the smartest elephants we’ve ever known. It seems she’s getting the hang of things quickly, so there’s promise that we’ll be able to move forward with using the PEMF pad more often.

Photo of Mara’s foot on the mat