Badly burned bear cub’s paws healing; bandages off

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Cinder took a major step in her recovery at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care last week.

For the first time since she was captured Aug. 1, the black bear cub seriously burned in the Carlton Complex fire is walking without bandages on her paws.

When Lake Tahoe veterinary doctor Kevin Willets took them off on Tuesday, he decided the third-degree burns on all four paws had healed enough to try leaving them off.

“The vet felt there was enough progress made that he wanted to try it for about a week and see what would happen. To let air get to it,” said Tom Millham, Wildlife Care’s director.

He said they’re watching her closely to make sure she isn’t licking her wounds or bleeding seriously.

“It’s been a day and a half, and she’s been a real good girl. She’s leaving them alone,” Millham said on Thursday.

Cinder was rescued July 31 by Steve Love, a Methow, Washington, resident who gave her food and water and talked to her soothingly after she made her way up his driveway and took refuge under one of his trees.

The Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife captured her the next day and East Wenatchee veterinarian Randy Hein treated her while Rich Beausoleil, the agency’s bear and cougar specialist, tried to find a facility that would take her.

Lake Tahoe was chosen because it’s the only facility that has successfully rehabilitated a bear cub with third-degree burns and returned it to the wild, and a pilot volunteered to fly her there.

Millham said when she arrived, even with bandages, she was using her elbows instead of her front paws to get around.

He said her back paws were far worse than her front ones – probably because she had no choice but to use her rear paws to make her way through the hot embers.

And although the bandages have come off, he said, “They’re definitely still red. There’s still some blood.”

In two months, Cinder has nearly doubled her weight – going from 39 pounds to 77 pounds. He said red grapes are her favorite food, although she eats lots of other fruits and vegetables. “We put her medications in a blueberry muffin and smother it with maple syrup,” he said.

Because she is older and more seriously hurt, she is kept separate from 10 other cubs they’re rehabilitating. Together, they eat about $1,200 worth of food every week.

And despite the frequent bandage changes, she’s still wary of people. Millham calls her feisty. “We want her to stay as wild as possible,” he said.

Millham said they still don’t know when she might be returned to Washington. ’Lil Smokey – the other bear cub with severe burns that was successfully rehabilitated and returned to the wild in 2009 – was ready after about four months. But Cinder is a different case, and she’s going back to a much harsher climate, he said.

“We know there are several steps to get her back in the wild. One is to make sure she is healed as well as possible, and that she could survive in the wild,” he said.

Plans now are to send her back to the Pacific Northwest for the last leg of her rehabilitation, letting her paws heal and toughen.