Burned Bears — One Pregnant — Saved With Fish Skin, Acupuncture

CALIFORNIA -- Two bears that were burned in the Thomas Fire last month were healed with the help of fish skin and acupuncture. The unique treatment was administered through veterinarians and staff at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Jamie Peyton, chief of integrative medicine at the UC Davis Veterinary Teaching Hospital, developed a burn salve for the bears' paws from tilapia skin, the department said in a news release. Fish skin, which contains collagen, is often used by doctors in Brazil to bandage human burns.

To help keep the tilapia skin in place, Peyton cut pieces to exactly match the size of the bear’s paws and then sutured them over the wounds while the bear was under anesthesia. Additional temporary wrappings, including rice paper and corn husks were added with the intention of stretching out the amount of time it would take for the animal to chew down to the fish skin bandage, the department said in a news release.

“We expected the outer wrapping to eventually come off, but we hoped the tilapia would keep steady pressure on the wounds and serve as an artificial skin long enough to speed healing of the wounds underneath,” said Peyton, who also used acupuncture to aid the bear with pain management.

During the burn treatment, staff also discovered one bear was pregnant.

The bears were released earlier this month with collars so the department can monitor their movements and survival in the wild, officials said.

“We’re really hopeful that these novel treatments accelerated the healing for these bears and provided them the best odds of survival,” said Deana Clifford, the department's senior wildlife veterinarian. “It’s especially good to know that we’ve maximized the odds of survival for the cub on the way. We don’t know exactly when it will be born, but hopefully we’ll be able to monitor the movements of the mother via satellite, and that will give us an indication of how things are going.”

A mountain lion cub was also rescued from the Thomas Fire and received fish skin to treat its burns.

The Thomas Fire sparked in Ventura County in December and scorched more than 280,000 acres across two counties.

--Photos courtesy of California Department of Fish and Wildlife

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How Fish Skin Is Helping This Burned CA Mountain Lion Kitten