Healing Animals, Helping People

The terrier had been badly attacked by another dog, and his back leg was severely injured. To make matters worse, a record-breaking snowstorm had made it impossible to get him to the vet for days after he was hurt.

Major needed surgery, and serious infection had already set in, with multiple kinds of dangerous bacteria detected. It was the kind of advanced infection that’s notoriously difficult to treat in both humans and nonhuman animals.

“Think of a wildfire taking off,” says Nicholas Ashton BS’11 MS’15 PhD’16, research assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at U of U Health. “Once the infection takes hold, the tissue starts breaking down, the bacteria proliferate, and it just keeps getting worse.” Pill-based antibiotics are often not enough to control such infections.

But Major’s veterinarian had a different solution, developed by Ashton and Dustin Williams PhD’12, professor of orthopedic surgery at U of U Health—a pouch that could be filled with antibiotics, placed directly into the wound, and refilled as needed. After 10 days of treatment, Major’s infection cleared.

Williams hit on the idea for the Vetlen Pouch while thinking about dialysis machines, which use permeable membranes to filter fluid. Instead of an antimicrobial coating that runs out, why not make a refillable bag?

The device has since treated dogs, cats, and horses with serious infections.

“Cats hate taking pills,” Williams says. “But with the pouch, you can just empty it and refill it every day and the cat doesn’t even care. And the wound heals up like a champ.”

The researchers hope to move into human clinical trials soon. “I come from a military family, and I want to help heal soldiers,” Williams says. “My goal is to heal people.”