Constipated elephant has 22kg lump of dung pulled from his bottom

A constipated elephant had a 22kg (50lbs) lump of dung pulled from his bottom. The sixty-year-old jumbo, named Boon Peng, was struggling to walk while suffering from abdominal pains at the Mae Sa elephant camp in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

Vets arrived and diagnosed constipation caused by a combination of slow metabolism, sluggish bowl movements and eating fresh grass that was not part of his diet.

Boon Peng's mahout (driver), Kiettisak Kawekan, volunteered for the job of wearing full-length plastic globes to reach inside the elephant's rear and scoop out the vast chunk of faeces.

Footage shows how the 22kg lump of dung was successfully pulled out, allowing the elderly elephant to move freely again.

Lump of dung clogging his back passage

Kiettisak even posed next to it on the ground to show how it was almost twice as big as his own head. Camp manager Anchalee Kalamaphichit said the jumbo had been gorging on fresh grass from a nearby field instead of specially ground up dried grass, which caused the constipation.

She said: "We usually feed the elephants with ground grass because it is better for their digestion but the old stubborn jumbo sneaks eating the grass on the field.

''A younger elephant could be OK, even though it's not ideal for them. But an older elephant with a slower metabolism with struggle to digest it fully.''

She added that the elephant was lucky to have his mahout because scooping out the elephant dung from the behind is not an easy process.

Kalamaphichit said: "I think the mahout is the only person that the elephant would trust enough to allow to do this.''

The vet said that the old jumbo could have become sick if the lump of dung clogging his back passage had had not been removed.