Featured Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
By Emily Persico
In 2010, Deepwater Horizon erupted and leaked 172 million gallons of crude oil directly into the Gulf of Mexico. While outstandingly catastrophic, this was not the first oil spill of such magnitude, nor will it be the last. Thanks to a new research study at the Marine Mammal Center, veterinary experts will be ready when the next big disaster hits.
In the study, scientists at the Marine Mammal Center have found a new treatment using old, tried and tested medication. While oiled birds are being force-fed Pepto-Bismol to eradicate the oil in their stomachs, marine mammals will be receiving an injection of antibiotic gel that is more commonly used in domestic animals and humans.
“Painful eye lesions are of significant concern in wildlife during oil spills,” explained the director of the UC Davis Oiled Wildlife Care Network Dr. Michael Ziccardi.
While usually not deadly, these eye lesions can escalate into more serious problems and can significantly reduce an animal’s chance of survival in the wild, where a keen sense of sight is vital to eat and escape predation.
Thankfully, oil spills do not occur often. Still, about 15% of the Marine Mammals Center’s patients have eye issues, and the antibiotic gel treatment proved useful here as well.
“We have seen these ulcers heal right up with the treatment,” announced Dr. Claire Simeone, veterinarian and lead author of the study.
Whereas the gel treatment starts working immediately and take veterinarians about two minutes to administer, traditional treatments are complicated and take multiple and frequent doses of eye drops and oral antibiotics.
The Marine Mammal Center may have just revolutionized the way veterinarians treat eye problems in marine mammals, and they’re sharing their work with zoos and aquariums, rehabilitation centers and, well, you.