(reprinted with permission from Emu's Zine)

As we get older our skin begins to thin, sometimes it seems like every little bump leaves a bruise – or worse – a skin tear.  

In this case, her cat accidentally clawed a 79-year-old lady. In defense of the cat, it was asleep when it was unceremoniously picked up from the chair. Instinctively, it “grabbed” to keep from falling.  

This resulted in two tiny skin tears that bled.  as you can see from the photo to the left, one of these was a triangle shaped tear about 1/2 inch long.  The second tear was also 1/2 inch long, but closer to the fingers.  Bruises ran across the top of the hand.  After the bleeding was stopped through slight pressure, emu oil was applied, along with a clean bandage.  In the past, wounds like this have taken a couple of weeks to heal, with emu oil the time was cut in half.  

By the second day the purple bruising was almost gone, with only a few areas still affected.  

The top of the hand developed yellow bruises which lasted for about a day, but are not shown very clearly here because of the age spots.  

The skin tears were treated with emu oil twice a day and a non-stick bandage was used to prevent further bruising.   

By day four the skin bruising was confined to the actual point of impact rather than across the entire hand. 

At this point, it was felt that the skin no longer needed a bandage for protection.  The skin tears were healed, there was no scabbing and the skin appeared to be thick enough to withstand usual contact.  With the bandage off, the emu oil was applied more frequently, perhaps 4 to 5 times during the day, gently rubbed in like a moisturizing lotion.

As can be seen by the picture to the left, by day 5 the bruising was gone. 

Skin remained thinner at the point of impact, but healing appeared to be complete.  

The skin kept it's pink "new skin" look for several more days.    

By day 8, the skin was probably in better shape than it was before the cat scratch. 

 Note that the age spots are fading.

Studies have shown that emu oil will actually thicken skin in the elderly by supplying their skin with the critical fatty acids required for skin and tissue nutrition.