Vets prepare plasma gel to treat old wounds
Instead of traditional antibiotics this newly developed gel will help heal wounded animals. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Pakistani veterinarians have developed a gel from plasma to treat old wounds of animals.
The platelet-rich plasma (PRP) gel strengthens animal muscles and heals wounds faster.
Dr Talha Sajjad of the Veterinary University Lahore Department of Animal Welfare said while speaking to The Express Tribune that the gel had also made it possible to treat paralysed animals. Dozens of injured dogs, cats, horses and donkeys are brought to the department daily for treatment.
He said the most difficult task was to heal old wounds of animals. "The traditional way is that we give these animals antibiotic medicine, which takes months for recovery.
If it is an internal wound, it takes more effort, but now we are using an easy approach."
According to Dr Sajjad, he has prepared the gel by mixing animal blood and other ingredients, which is applied as ointment on the wounds. If the wound is internal, the affected part is massaged with the gel, due to which the animal heals in days instead of months.
He said his greatest achievement was the treatment of a polo horse. It slipped during a game and a part of its body was paralysed due to the fall. This horse is worth more than Rs1.5 million. The owner of the thoroughbred horse had decided to shoot him but the doctor got permission to treat it.
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Dr Sajjad said that after two months of treatment with the gel, the horse had recovered and started running as before.
Dr Sajjad was educated in the United Kingdom and he also learnt the treatment method at his college there.
The horse's rear legs were massaged and bandaged, the gel was applied on the wounds and other medicines were also administered.
The doctor said it was the first time that he had made the gel in Pakistan, which had healed the horse's wounds in four weeks, while the normal treatment took up to a year. The doctor said the Royal College in the UK had also praised his success.
Dr Sajjad said he had not only successfully treated a paralysed horse for the first time in Pakistan but also operated upon a fractured knee of a donkey without a steel rod.
He said Pakistani veterinary doctors were known for their expertise and achievements all over the world but their abilities were not being amply utilised in the country.
The doctor said people brought injured animals to the department but it did not have medicines. NGOs working for the protection of animals provide medicines when they send animals for treatment but the citizens have to bear the cost of the drugs.
UVAS Assistant Professor Dr Hamid Akbar
said the autologous PRP gel was low cost and effective for rapid recovery from chronic equine wounds. He said research was under way to persevere the gel for a longer time to male it available in all veterinary hospitals with blood banks.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2021.