Jake, 8 years old, injured himself in a fleeting race this summer.
And he didn't even catch the UPS truck he was after.
Jake is a brown-and-white beagle mix, and he has been living in pain since losing that race with the delivery truck, said Dr. Christine Hunt, Jake's veterinarian at University Animal Hospital in Greensboro.
He wouldn't put weight on his right rear leg as a result of his injury, and his left rear leg was also showing signs of arthritis that were only likely to get worse. His treatment included acupuncture and physical therapy, but nothing seemed to work, Hunt said.
"We weren't controlling his pain anymore," she said.
So on Tuesday, Jake underwent stem-cell therapy aimed at relieving his pain.
Hunt has been certified in stem-cell therapy for about three years but hadn't used the therapy in part because it required the stem cells to be shipped to the West Coast to be separated. In the process, many stem cells would die, Hunt said.
But under a new technology developed by Kentucky-based MediVet-America, the therapy can be done in one day without the stem-cell samples leaving the clinic. The cost also has dropped, from about $3,000 to as low as $1,800, depending on the size of the animal and the number of joints requiring treatment, said Bob De Witt of Roberts Communications, which is representing MediVet-America.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a few small stem-cell surgeries have been carried out in humans, usually in patients who are undergoing open-heart surgery. Several of these have demonstrated that stem cells that are injected into the blood or directly into the injured heart tissue appear to improve cardiac function and induce the formation of new capillaries. But research continues into using stem cells for humans.
For animals, the treatment has moved forward more quickly, De Witt said.
Jake is the second dog to undergo the treatment at the Greensboro clinic. Riot, a Pembroke Welsh corgi owned by veterinarian Catherine Markijohn, underwent the same therapy this month.
Markijohn said Riot, 7, was having multiple problems, including back spasms and arthritis in his knees.
"He was in constant pain," she said.
Two weeks later, Riot is moving much more normally, Markijohn said.
Riot's success gave Hunt a chance to see that the procedure could work, and Jake seemed like a good prospect to be the clinic's first patient outside the office to undergo it.
During Tuesday's operation, about 20 grams of fat from Jake's belly were removed and placed in a small jar. The fat cells were minced fine, filtered and condensed for more than two hours. The resulting stem cells were then injected back into his troubled rear knees.
As they regrow in the body, the stem cells can become ligaments, tendons or cartilage in the knee where Jake is having problems.
And because the cells come from Jake's own body, there's not a risk that his body will reject the cells, the way it can sometimes with donor cells.
It will take about four weeks for Jake to feel the full effects of the treatment, Hunt said.
The treatment can also be used in cats, horses and other animals suffering from such conditions as arthritis, hip dysplasia and cartilage or ligament damage.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement