Topical Wound Therapy for Chimps

Topical Wound Therapy

With antibiotic resistance on the rise, it is more important than ever to use drug therapy wisely. Chimpanzees have amazing powers to heal, out in the wild wounds would have to take care of themselves. But Collin is not in the wild, he is under our care at Project Chimps.

Finding the balance between encouraging them to live as “normal chimps” and providing captive medical care is difficult. Whether from fight or play, wounds caused by nails or teeth, accidents happen. Also, they can be messy creatures.

The struggle becomes when to intervene – and to what level. Do we let a wound heal naturally with time or do we intervene and speed up the process but run the risk of growing superbugs or psychological stress?

Well fortunately with the aid of wonderful care staff and the new behaviorist we have introduced a topical wound therapy program that allows us the best point of care.

Collin

Meet Collin, an 18-year-old male chimpanzee who is no stranger to bumps and bruises. He likes to play hard and is very curious and adventurous. Mischievous and cunning, he likes to show his family just how tough he can be. Accidents happen and most tend to be nothing more than scrapes.

Recently he had a deep cut to his hand and some chimps can be very secretive about any injuries (big or small), Collin was no different.

Through diligent monitoring, the wound was noticed very quickly, and help was on the way.

With some “raisin motivation”, he started showing us his cut when asked. We got Collin used to being sprayed with a gentle mist of water very quickly.

Chimpanzee Collin's finger wound. — Collin showing his finger wound to the care team.

We added an antibiotic/anti-inflammatory topical liquid and started spraying the wound with positive reinforcement. This also allowed us to clean the wound twice a day.

Everyone wants to participate

We also noticed his friends quickly became interested as well and were more than happy to participate with water. Then, what was first apprehensive, quickly turned into a fun game!

two chimpanzees looking at one getting their finger sprayed for topical wound therapy — Noel watches closely as Collin gets his finger sprayed.

We noticed that Collin’s healing time was cut in half and at no time did this deep wound get infected, despite his hands being on the ground as much as the bottom of his feet.

Collin has been an example that will start the future training of other chimps to allow this method of topical wound therapy. This will allow us to clean and treat any potential injuries on the skin while expediting healing time without the risk of bacterial resistance.

Not to mention, most of them really enjoy it!

Interested in supporting our topical wound therapy program? Find spray bottles, over the counter medicines, and important rewards like raisins on our wishlist and send a gift to the chimps today!