acupuncture? it's quite interesting that even animals suffer from placebo, despite us not believing they have cognitive ability to understand someone is doing a "medical procedure" to fix their ailment.
Think of it as a very subtle massage.
But yea, it does seem weird to do it on bears
Any serious disease, like cancer, skin burns, severe pain, there is no evidence it's better than placebo.
They can’t subject them to tranquilizers for weeks, and the pain leaves the injured animals restless, so they have to be dealt with, while fully lucid and agitated by their injuries. Familiarizing wild animals with being handled, even while in pain, and for the purpose of carrying out possibly painful procedures, has a unique set of problems to solve.