A few years back, Dr. Gary's dog (Bella, pictured to the right) was barely able to walk due to her severe hip dysplasia and he, like many of you, wanted an alternate to surgery. 

In November 2009, Dr. Gary became certified through Vet-Stem to perform Stem Cell therapy and shortly therafter, performed our first Stem Cell Therapy treatment on Bella! 

Stem Cell therapy is a new technology that can help animals with many diseases:  hip dysplasia; arthritis of the hip, knee, or elbow; and soft tissue repair for tendons and ligaments.

Stem cells were a lifesaver for Bella - now two years later she can take her 1.5 mile weekly walk and still stand up, play, and wag her tail later that night, where previously she wouldn't have finished the walk OR been able to stand up later!

For more information on Stem Cell Therapy, please see the links and discussions below. 

Call and ask us if Stem Cell Therapy might be right for your pet!

Q & A

Q: What are stem cells?

A:  They are cells in the body with the ability to become other cells, such as muscle, bone, tendon, ligament, cartilage, liver, and more. 

Q:  Where do the stem cells come from?

A:  Stem cells are derived from fat in your pet's body.

Q: What kind of conditions can be helped with Stem Cell Therapy?

A:  Stem cells can help animals with arthritis, hip dysplasia, torn tendons & ligaments.  There are also studies under way to see if stem cells might help with auto-immune, renal, and liver disease.

Q: What do the stem cells do?

A:  Once injected into the affected area, the stem cells go to work to rebuild damaged tissue by becoming cells of that affected tissue and replacing and rebuilding the damaged tissue.  Stem cells also signal the body to produce a variety of substances that relieve inflammation and pain so that we see improvement of the condition as early as 2 weeks following treatment.

More Information - Links

For more information on Stem Cell Therapy, and for the link to the company who extracts the stem cells and prepares them for injection back into the pet (Vet-Stem).

• Vet-Stem: http://www.vet-stem.com/
• Stem Cells on Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell
• National Institute of Health's Stem Cell Basics page:  http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics1.asp

Animal Stem Cell Therapy in the News:

• USA Today:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-12-dog-arthritis_N.htm
• ABC News:  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4109559&page=1
• Live Science:  http://www.livescience.com/animals/080123-dog-stemcell.html
• Time:  http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1817572,00.html
• Newsweek:  http://www.newsweek.com/id/40411
• Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128160933.htm