嘿嘿视频

Healing Burned Animals with Fish Skins

Innovative treatment could help solve global public health crisis

JAMIE PEYTON SNAPPED AN INSTAGRAM PHOTO of herself while aboard an airplane headed to England in May. In her hand, she held a tiny, stuffed horse wearing a University of California, Davis, T-shirt.

It was the perfect photo for the mission. The 嘿嘿视频 integrative medicine veterinarian had been called to save a real horse. An 18-month-old gypsy cob pony had been found abandoned and starving in a field in Yorkshire. That wasn鈥檛 the worst of it.

Her face was horrifically scarred with oozing wounds from extensive third-degree chemical burns. The injuries left her unable to open her eyes.

鈥淚t appears to have been a malicious attack,鈥 Peyton said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 as though someone had poured acid on the top of her head and it dripped down her face to her mouth.鈥

A good Samaritan had brought the pony to local veterinarians who had heard about Peyton鈥檚 successful use of tilapia fish skins to heal a mountain lion and two black bears burned during the California wildfires last fall. Veterinarians in Yorkshire thought the novel treatment might work on the pony.

Within a few days, Peyton was on a plane to help. She carried with her a cooler full of sterilized tilapia skins that would eventually act as a healing biological bandage for the pony.

jaime Peyton and stuffed horse
Jamie Peyton snapped this photo of herself while aboard a plane to England where she would help the Rainbow Equine Veterinary Hospital care for a pony burned in an acid attack. (Jamie Peyton / 嘿嘿视频)
***WARNING: contains graphic burn images***

Little fish face

The torture and neglect that the pony had suffered was just horrid. She was skinny, lice-infested, had overgrown hooves, bad teeth, and a bleeding face. The overgrown hooves prompted vet technicians to name her Cinderella or 鈥淐inders鈥 for short, as she would soon get new shoes and become more like a princess.

鈥淪he didn鈥檛 want anyone touching her face,鈥 Peyton said.

She and the Yorkshire team went to work cleaning the burns, removing dead tissue and applying ointments to ease the pain. Treatments such as  and  were also applied.

horse with fish skin grafted onto face, intubated
Cinders, an 18-month old pony, during surgery after Jamie Peyton sutured tilapia skins to her burned face. She called it 鈥渁 little fish face.鈥 (Jamie Peyton / 嘿嘿视频)

Peyton originally came up with the idea of using tilapia skins from reading about a group of doctors in Brazil that had used them to successfully treat burns on people. Brazil and many other developing countries lack human skin and artificial alternatives that are widely available in the United States to treat burn wounds. But tilapia is a farmed fish that is abundant. Their skins are usually thrown away.

Tilapia skin, like human skin, can transfer collagen, a healing protein. It can reduce pain. Peyton and the team went to work on Cinders鈥 burned face, suturing tilapia skins from the top of her forehead down to her mouth.

鈥淲e created for her what we called 鈥榓 little fish face,鈥欌 Peyton said.

Within an hour of waking up from the anesthesia, Cinders was eating again. By the next morning, she let veterinarians touch her face.

鈥淵ou鈥檇 think she鈥檇 want nothing to do with people, but the opposite was true,鈥 Peyton said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so heartwarming.鈥

horse burnt skin ::(
Right: Cinders' skin has already started to regrow just two weeks after tilapia skins were sutured to her face. (Credit / Rainbow Veterinary Hospital)

 

horse burnt face :(
Wounds as extensive as Cinders鈥 usually take six months to heal, but two weeks after the fish skins were first applied, about 80 percent of the skin had grown back on her face.

Treatment first used on bears, mountain lion burned in California wildfires

Cinders was the first horse to be treated with tilapia skins for burn wounds, Peyton said, but the first animal test case came in October during California鈥檚 largest recorded wildfire at the time, the Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife rescued two adult female black bears and a 5-month-old mountain lion with third-degree burns on their paws -- a death sentence for big predators that must cover a lot of terrain to stay fed. One of the bears was found sitting with her paws in a stream of water, unable to move from the pain.

鈥淵ou want to do everything possible to get these animals feeling better.鈥 鈥擩amie Peyton

Deana Clifford, the wildlife agency鈥檚 senior veterinarian and an assistant clinical professor at the 嘿嘿视频 School of Veterinary Medicine, treated the burns and enlisted Peyton to soothe the animals鈥 pain.

bear in stream
One of the bears burned during the Thomas Fire was in so much pain that she was found sitting with her paws in a stream. (Photo / California Department of Fish and Wildlife)

Peyton said the younger bear inspired her to think of an outside-the-box solution.

鈥淲hen I saw the degree of injury that she had and how much pain she was in, it just tugged at my heart,鈥 she said. 鈥淵ou want to do everything possible to get these animals feeling better. It鈥檚 not their fault they were in this horrible fire and they鈥檙e in a strange environment and they don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going on and they hurt.鈥

burned bear paws
Bear brought to CDFW Wildlife Investigations Lab has severe third-degree burns on its paws. (Karin Higgins / 嘿嘿视频)

The tilapia skins were born out of sheer necessity, with veterinarians at the state wildlife investigations laboratory in Rancho Cordova working against the clock. They couldn鈥檛 risk the bears adjusting to captivity. Frequent bandage changes on wild animals would be too difficult.  The team also had trouble getting the animals to swallow pain pills. Complicating the situation even more, they soon found out that one of the bears was pregnant.

鈥淭hat was a game changer for us, because we knew it wouldn鈥檛 be ideal for her to give birth in confinement,鈥 Clifford said. 鈥淲e aren鈥檛 really set up to have a birth at the lab holding facilities, and we knew there was a high probability that she could reject the cub, due to all the stress she was under.鈥

tilapia on bear paw
Left: Tilapia skins sutured to one of the bear鈥檚 paws provide pain relief and transfer collagen. (Photo / California Department of Fish and Wildlife)

 

jamie peyton sutures tilapia skins onto bear
Right: Jamie Peyton sutures tilapia skins on one of the bears burned (Karin Higgins / 嘿嘿视频)

That鈥檚 when Peyton decided to try tilapia skins for the first time. She bought the tilapia at a local fish market and sterilized the skins, which removed any fish smell that could tempt the animals to eat the biological bandages.

Peyton sutured the tilapia skins to the bears鈥 paws. After the younger bear woke up, one of the first things she did was sit up with her paws on the ground.

鈥淪he was more mobile, which in my mind is a huge success for pain control,鈥 said Peyton.

The fish skins can also be left on wounds longer than cloth bandages. Ordinary cloth bandages can block animals鈥 intestines if they are eaten. The mountain lion, which received the same treatment as the bears, eventually ate his. Peyton also wrapped the bears鈥 feet in rice paper and corn husks. Photos and video of the bears went viral in the media, especially after Peyton called their feet 鈥渓ittle spring rolls鈥 or 鈥淐alifornia bear roll feet.鈥

bear in enclosure with fish skin on paws
The younger bear rests in her holding enclosure after her treatment. The outer wrapping on her feet, made of corn husks, will delay her efforts to chew off the tilapia skin bandages underneath. (Photo / California Department of Fish and Wildlife)

Just like Cinders, new skin had grown back on the animals鈥 paw pads in a matter of weeks.

Because the mountain lion cub was so young, biologists believe he would not survive in the wild. He鈥檚 now cared for at the Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue in Petaluma.

Wildfire destroyed both bears鈥 original habitat, so state wildlife officers created separate dens for them in the Los Padres National Forest. Each still wears a satellite collar. Every few days, the collars register 鈥減ings,鈥 indicating normal behavior and movement. Biologists have tracked them traveling miles from their dens, indicating that their paws must be healing well.

view into bear den
View into one of the bear dens created by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in the Los Padres National Forest. This younger bear wears her satellite collar so she can be monitored. (Photo / California Department of Fish and Wildlife)

Will fish skins become standard care?

The implications for treating burns with tilapia skins extend beyond the veterinary field.

The World Health Organization calls burns a global public health problem, accounting for 180,000 deaths a year.  While burns are treatable, advances in treatment and care have been applied mostly in higher income countries where people have access to expensive dermal substitutes.

Peyton believes the low-cost and widespread availability of tilapia skins makes it a game-changer for treating burns, whether animal or human.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been doing the same standard of care for burns for years and people are very comfortable doing that, but it doesn鈥檛 mean that鈥檚 the best care,鈥 Peyton said. 鈥淭o advance medicine, we have to keep pushing ourselves to find new alternatives.鈥

jamie peyton
Jamie Peyton, chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at 嘿嘿视频 Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, shown here after successfully suturing tilapia skins on a mountain lion and two bears in January 2018. (Karin Higgins / 嘿嘿视频)

Media contact: Amy Quinton, 嘿嘿视频 News and Media Relations, 530-752-9843, amquinton@ucdavis.edu

 

 

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