Can You Use Fish Skin To Treat Burns

Recently, Dr. Jamie Peyton received a phone call from a fellow veterinarian at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife regarding a yearling bear cub that sustained severe, third-degree burns on her paws and feet. In add-on to being unable to walk or movement from the severity of her burn injury, there were active fires burning nearby that placed her life at run a risk.

The behave cub is approximately 1 years old, estimated Peyton, a board-certified veterinarian in emergency and critical care, and showed promising signs of a fast recovery due to her young age, overall good wellness, voracious appetite, active lifestyle, spunky attitude, and the prompt handling she received.

The fourth dimension of year likewise makes a difference in the young cub's recovery.

"Most bears are very agile during the summer versus the winter when they would be hibernating," Peyton, who is internationally renowned for her interest in burn injuries, multidisciplinary hurting management, and innovations in wound intendance, told ABC News. "Better health and all these factors are better for healing despite her wounds being so astringent."

Although she has experience treating bears with burn injuries in the past (she treated two adult bears injured by the Thomas fire in Dec), this bear is the youngest Peyton has treated and has more than severe and extensive injuries. And so she decided that the all-time remedy to treat the young bear would be fish skins.

PHOTO: A young, female bear with paws badly burned in the Carr Fire is rescued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and is treated with fish skin. — A young, female deport with paws desperately burned in the Carr Fire is rescued past the California Department of Fish and Wild fauna, and is treated with fish skin.

California Section of Fish and Wildlife

What are some of the challenges in treating burns?

Fire injuries don't discriminate -- they affect all species.

"Wildfires affect all of us -- I have been forced to evacuate from California wildfires 5 times," Peyton said. "It has driven me to accelerate areas of fire injury, wound care and pain management for patients."

Dr. Deanna Clifford, a senior wildlife veterinarian at the California Section of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), noted the challenges of treating wildlife with burn injuries.

"When an animal's extremities are burned, they basically cannot walk," Clifford told ABC News. "It is a challenge to effigy out how to care for wildlife -- I cannot just walk up to a bear and give information technology a pill or an injection."

Prior to recent advances, "bears like this were non treated for this injury -- they were either euthanized or never found," Peyton explained.

Historically, burns were treated in patients with ointments and bandages, which is difficult to exercise for wild animals, particularly those with astringent, third-degree fire injuries. Medical advances have led to the creation of skin and dermal substitutes that while very helpful, are prohibitively plush for both humans and animals alike -- sometimes costing thousands of dollars and rarely covered by insurance.

"We are trying to effigy out how to heal astringent burn injuries and wounds for veterinary patients and besides go along information technology cost-effective," Peyton said, "we can't afford a lot of the skin substitutes that are out there."

Information technology's why Peyton had the thought to look into other sources of biological dressings for wound intendance, like tilapia skin as bandages.

In wild animals, veterinarians are trying to balance managing astringent burn injuries, minimizing the times they take to immobilize and anesthetize animals to perform procedures, while also accelerating healing time.

"We are learning as we go -- the fish skin is applied on a example by case basis," Clifford said. "Ultimately, we want her [the bear cub] to have the best chance of success. Our goal is to heal the skin and release the deport into the wild equally quickly as possible."

How did fish skins as bandages come to be used in the United States?

Peyton first heard virtually fish skin -- specifically tilapia -- being used as a treatment choice for burn down injuries in Brazil from a YouTube video. Brazil, like many developing nations, does not have admission to tissue banks. With limited resource, "You accept to think outside the box and then nosotros tried this on animals that needed assist," said Clifford.

Given Peyton's expertise, she recognized fish skin as a viable alternative to costly skin substitutes.

"The tilapia serves as a biological band-aid that is helpful in multiple ways," Peyton explained. "It provides pain control, protection, and acts as a collagen scaffold for wound healing. Nosotros accept been very pleased because we have seen good results with wounds healing faster than expected."

Peyton too believes in using multi-modal therapy, which incorporates both medical-based treatments and holistic, integrated intendance. The acquit has received both medications and non-drug based holistic therapy including acupuncture, chiropractic care, cold and infrared laser therapy, and TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) -- an electromagnetic field therapy that facilitates blood menses. To make the treatment more enticing, the behave is receiving her crushed pills in meatballs.

What is it about fish peel that helps heal the burn?

The tilapia provides direct, steady pressure to wounds, keeping bacteria out and staying on improve and longer than any kind of regular, synthetic bandage, according to the CDFW. The process is simple -- Peyton buys the fish, cleans and sterilizes information technology, and sutures it onto the normal part of the fauna's skin and directly over the fire injury itself.

Before applying the tilapia dressing, this bear'southward skin was cleaned and debrided and a medical-grade honey balm mixed with beeswax was applied to her feet to acclimate her skin and appraise her walking. Information technology was likewise important to rule out any signs of infection. Immediately, the veterinary squad noticed she was not bearing weight.

"She was non putting weight on her front anxiety at all," Clifford said. "Through this method, we also wanted to promote her healing equally much as possible and run into what tissue was affected -- what her burns are trying to tell us."

Prior to the awarding of the fish peel, the conduct was licking her paws constantly, "a sign of concern," Peyton said.

"The animal pain response is that they will lick their wounds when something hurts," Peyton added.

Once the tilapia was applied, she did not fuss with her paws at all.

"She has not taken the dressing off or licked it, which lets united states of america know she has been getting pain relief from this," Peyton said.

Over time, the fish skin will dry out out and act as a protective, leather-like shield. It was sutured on to preclude information technology from coming off, and the conduct will exist reassessed in the next couple of days for progress.

"While information technology is besides early to know when she volition exist released," Peyton said, "her response in the past week has been remarkable, peculiarly regarding her hurting command and the extent of her wounds."

Dr. Anna Chacon is a dermatologist and part of the ABC News medical unit.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/fish-skin-heal-burn-wounds-work/story?id=57122126

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