When Smokey was presented to the Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital last fall, he had an extensive burn wound over his back and hips.
The photos of his injury are hard to look at it was so severe.
“Burns of this severity are not common, but can occur from things like heating pads, hair dryers, fires, even bath water that is too hot,” said Dr. Allison Kenzig, Clinical Assistant Professor of Small Animal Surgery. “These types of burns not only cause local wounds, but can also cause issues with internal organ systems, especially with burns covering a large percentage of the body.”
Upon arrival at Iowa State, Smokey underwent a variety of procedures including, wound debridement and bandaging. The Hixson-Lied veterinary medical team also performed a thoracic and abdominal CT scan to evaluate the depth of the burn.
Three separate rounds of wound treatment with a VAC (vacuum-assisted closure) device were then performed on Smokey over the course of a week and a half. The VAC is utilized to improve wound bed health and to shrink the wound area.
This is when Smokey’s case gets really interesting.
The VAC treatments made the wound bed healthy enough to perform a Cod Fish Skin Graft placement. The skin graft gets incorporated into the wound bed, providing anti-inflammatory properties to the wound as well as a scaffolding for the patient’s tissue to grow and speed the healing process.
Smokey underwent two fish skin graft procedures, with the second performed two weeks after the initial graft.
“After the first graft placement, Smokey’s tissue healing progressed well and more quickly,” Kenzig said.
The Cod Fish Skin Grafts were donated to Smokey by the company Kerecis.
“Kerecis also sent a medical device representative to be present at both surgeries to help guide our surgery teams’ usage of their product,” Kenzig said.
All told, Smokey spent about a month at the Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital before he was released to his owners. He has continued to improve, and new skin has now completely covered the wound area, just over three months after the initial injury.
Kenzig says that while Smokey may have a permanent bald patch in the middle of the healed wound area, he is otherwise is on the road to recovery.
“At this point, Smokey’s prognosis is excellent,” Kenzig said. “His owner will need to be careful of potential sunburn and re-injury to the area as the new skin is more delicate than normal skin.”
“But he should be able to otherwise live a happy, healthy, normal lifespan.”
February 2026
