ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS FOR WILDLIFE IN CALIF. WILDFIRES
FRANCISCO» Rescuers took two SAN adult bears, one of them pregnant, and a young mountain lion to veterinarians with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the University of California-Davis after the animals were hurt in the largest wildfire in state history. They were found in the Los Padres National Forest, whose mountains stretch through badly burned areas of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
The bears had suffered third-degree burns on all their paws, said Jamie Peyton, chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at the university’s vet school. The cub also burned all four paws.
Standard pain treatment is a problem for the animals and their caregivers when it comes to wildlife with sharp teeth and claws, Peyton said. For safety, vets have to sedate the animals every time they change their bandages or otherwise care for them.
“You can only anesthetize them so many times,” Peyton said. “It’s hard on them. We can’t do that to them every day.”
Putting pain pills in food also is problematic, because there’s no guarantee the animals will eat them, Peyton said.
Instead, Peyton and her colleagues used some of the alternative methods she already employs with other animals, including acupuncture, chiropractic treatment, and cold-laser therapy. Many health-insurance companies consider some of the treatments experimental or unproven and do not always cover their costs in human patients.
Vets carried out the alternative treatments only on days when the bears and mountain lion were already anesthetized for bandage changes or other standard care.
“I adore them, but they’re wild,” Peyton explained.
Another form of treatment seemed most helpful of all for the bears, vets said.
The California vets stitched fish skins to the animals’ burned paws then wrapped the treated feet with bandages of rice paper and corn husks, after reading about trials on human burn victims in Brazil that placed treated skins from tilapia on burn victims to soothe pain and promote healing. —AP