NPR

Tilapia-Skin Bandages Heal Burns On Black Bears Caught In California's Thomas Fire

The younger bear rests in her holding enclosure after her treatment is finished. The outer wrapping on her feet (made of corn husks) will delay her efforts to chew off the tilapia skin bandages underneath. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis)

Two black bears in Southern California have been released back into the wild after they were badly burned in last year’s deadly Thomas Fire. When wildlife officials found them in the Los Padres National Forest, the skin on their feet had been destroyed by third-degree burns. A team of veterinarians used an unorthodox treatment: bandages made of tilapia skin.

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd learns more from , chief of the integrative medicine service at UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.

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