Alternative treatments in wound healing in animals

Abstract

Treating wounds on a patient is a daily work for veterinarians in small animals practice. Wounds are not so simple to treat as we might think. It is important to assess the correct wound category in order to apply the right treatment. Antibiotics became challenging due to the worldwide problem of antibiotic resistance and so, alternative treatments started to emerge. In human medicine, people want to receive treatments which are the most natural as possible. Nowadays, Phytotherapy became more popular the last few years, even in veterinary medicine. Sea buckthorn is an ancient plant, very well-known remedy, since the dawn of time for its beneficial effects on the organism. In this study, we evaluated the effect of sea buckthorn oil on wound healing by second intention on rabbits, in comparison with Honeyderm, a product that is already on the market for veterinary medicine. The two products were applied on the same type of wounds but in different quantity per day and in comparison with a control one using saline solution. Histological examination highlighted better results in wounds treated with sea buckthorn oil. The cutaneous defects were filled with an abundant amount of immature fibrous tissue composed of large number of fibroblasts and new small capillaries, extracellular matrix and insignificant number of inflammatory cells. No significant differences were identified in the individuals of the control group and those of the Honeyderm group.