An animal hospital in southern Thailand is in desperate need of saline solution as the number of the elephant patients has soared during the coronavirus crisis.

The rescue centre in Krabi province normally treats around 10 jumbos at a time and they already large reserves of saline but during the Covid-19 pandemic, more animals are arriving.

The head vet at the animal hospital, Benjatham Thaitham, said the increase is due to out-of-work mahouts bringing their elephants for check-ups, which then leads to more ailments being discovered.

Benjatham said: ''Normally, only the sick or injured elephants would be brought here but after the coronavirus has spread many mahouts have brought their animals for check ups.

"Now we need more than 100 bags of saline per day to treat up to 20 elephants which is almost double, compared with the normal situation."

The vet added that most of the injuries that the elephants are suffering from are long term problems, which requires large doses of saline each day.

She said: "The elephant's injuries usually take longer to treat, so they have to spend longer at the hospital and also need more saline.

"We are now quickly running out of stock, which will be disastrous for elephants that need care."

Sterile saline solution is used by vets to treat animals.