A veterinary surgeon in Twin Falls Idaho is practicing a new form of therapy for dogs with hip dysplaysia, joint problems and arthritis. He takes the stem cells and fat cells from the ailing dog and injects them into the painful joint. He is seeing a nice success rate so far.
The name of the new therapy is called "Vet-Stem". The vet has to be certified by "Vet-Stem" to be able to practice this procedure. The vet harvests fat cells from the dog while it's sedated (doesn't have to be under anaesthesia to do this. The cells are sent to Vet-Stem who isolates the cells and then sends the cells back to the vet in a syringe. The vet takes the syringe and injects the cells into the painful joint. In about two weeks there is a noticeable improvement in the pets ability to move around normally.
A Dr. Jarrold Bausman of Los Angeles does this therapy on his canine patients and these are his observations:
"The stem cells provide very good anti-inflammatory capabilities at the cellular level," Bausman said. The best research indicates the stem cells are not turning into other cells, such as cartilage or bone, but are rather stimulating existing stem cells in that area to regenerate, he said. This is suspected to be similar to the way that young animals are able to heal more quickly and completely from an injury than older animals. "How that happens, we don't know yet. I'm really excited to see what it turns into."
This new therapy can be used on older dogs 12 and older. If this therapy continues to work, it'll offer relief to pets who are too old to have surgery because older pets sometimes do not recover well from surgery. Dr. Bausman said he knows of a dog who had surgery at age 12 and three years later is still recovering from it.
The downside is that this therapy is expensive. The current price for this stem cell treatment runs around $3,000 per dog. But, that's only have the price for a single total hip replacement which runs around $6,500 in some cases.
The medical community is getting interested in this treatment for us humans as well. Taking cells out of our body's, isolating them and injecting them back is a therapy that can be used on humans as well as our canine buddies.
Veterinarians have to be credentialed by Vet-Stem to be able to practice this new stem cell therapy. Vet-Stem is a California company that isolates pets' stem cells for reinjection. Vet-Stem may be reached at vet-stem.com or 1-88-VET-STEM-1.
No comments:
Post a Comment