Medicine

Alternative treatments used for wildlife burned in California fires

January 27, 2018 00:45·
Vets stitched skins from tilapia a freshwater fish over the wounded paws

Vets stitched skins from tilapia a freshwater fish over the wounded paws

They had found one bear huddling on December 9 in a backyard aviary near the town of Ojai and the other two weeks later in a nearby wooded area.

A team of researchers, which included experts from the Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, stitched the skin of tilapia fish - which are widely available and inhabit shallow streams, ponds, rivers and lakes - on to their injured paws. The idea came up in discussions between Deana Clifford, a senior veterinarian with the CDFW, and Jamie Peyton, chief of integrative medicine at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis.

"In our view, there was no downside", said Peyton.

TWO bears burned in the California wildfires have had their paws wrapped in fish skins in a pioneering alternative treatment.

There was no guarantee they'd gulp down pain pills hidden in their food, Peyton said. "We can't do that to them every day".

After the bandages went on, the bear who couldn't get up due to the pain started standing again, UC Davis said.

A fast recovery was imperative, especially for the second bear.

Macintyre said that the treatment worked much quicker than typical burn salve and pointed to a photo showing the paws' progression. The two doctors plan to write a paper on the fish skin treatment, said Kirsten Macintyre, communications director for the CDFW.

The veterinarians used fish skin because of the collagen levels present and moisture retention abilities that are the same as human skin.

"California's changing climate means that we're likely to see more wild animals impacted by catastrophic wildfires", she said.

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Peyton and Clifford cut grafts of clean tilapia skin and sewed them directly onto the bears' paws while they were anesthesized. "The skins are really, really strong, and it'll help with pain control". There, Zachos reports, the animals recovered from the harrowing experience with their wounds wrapped in fish skin. "They were known either as "tamale feet" or 'California bear roll feet". Complicating the situation even more, they soon found out that the older bear was pregnant.

The bears kept their bandages on, but the little mountain lion kept eating his, officials said.

"Cats don't like stuff on their feet", Peyton said.

The bears were in much worse condition than the lion, with "oozing wounds and, in some cases, paw pads that were completely burned off", the CDFW said.

After weeks of treatment, wildlife officials released the bears back into the burned Los Padres National Forest last week.

They were found in the Los Padres National Forest, whose mountains stretch through badly burned areas of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. After she identified two about five miles apart, a team from the wildlife agency built dens from logs, brush and branches.

"We wanted to give her particularly Cadillac accommodations", Macintyre said.

The bears are the first to ever be treated with tilapia skin. Wildlife officials drove them to their new homes, then placed them in their dens and set up trail cameras nearby. They were released on January 18.

The mountain lion, who in the wild would have stayed with his mother until it was about 18 months old, is too young to be released.

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