[Dailydrool] Joint pain

[Swartz]

I found this article on the Modern Dog Website.  I thought that there might 
be a few droolers out there that might be interested in this.
http://www.moderndogmagazine.com/articles/joint-pain-try-stem-cell-therapy/17812

Joint Pain? Try Stem Cell Therapy
Substantial joint damage and degenerative diseases like osteoarthritis once 
meant constant pain and a slow decline for afflicted dogs and cats, but a 
new treatment is now improving patients' quality of life by reducing pain 
and inflammation and actually rebuilding healthy tissues. Regenerative stem 
cell therapy involves extracting and isolating the regenerative stem cells- 
cells that activate in case of injury and produce the type of cell required 
to repair the damage-from the animal's own fat tissue and injecting them 
directly into the diseased or damaged joints. Last October, Dr. Joe Whalen, 
DVM, of the Chicago-based LePar Animal Hospital, became the first 
veterinarian in Illinois to successfully treat three of his canine patients 
with in-house stem cell therapy. Dr. Whalen extracted a sample of each dog's 
fat tissue and processed it to isolate highly potent regenerative stem 
cells. The cells were then injected intravenously into the canine's diseased 
and damaged joints. The process took about 90 minutes and cost approximately 
$2000 per dog, which covered injections into multiple joints.
Stem cells processed on site are more likely to have a clinical benefit and, 
as Dr. Whalen notes, the cost of the therapy is lower than when an off-site 
lab is used to isolate the stem cells, making the procedure possible for a 
greater number of patients.
If your vet doesn't offer this service in-house, you can still utilize the 
therapy by going through Vet-Stem, a San Diegobased company specializing in 
fat-derived stem cell therapy for veterinary medicine. Using an off-site lab 
such as Vet-Stem is currently the most common practice. It requires a sample 
be taken and shipped to them to be processed before being shipped back, a 
procedure that takes about 48 hours and requires two separate vet visits.
If stem cell therapy is something you're interested in considering, speak to 
your vet about your options. For some prospective patients, such as those 
with cancer or severe degenerative joint disease, the procedure might be too 
risky. For others, like Gabby, the 11-year-old Rottweiler who regained a 
remarkable degree of mobility a week after a stem-cell procedure for her 
arthritic knees, it can make a real difference.

Drool to all in need
Michele Momma to the Bad A** Basset Brothers
Women are Angels...And when someone breaks their wings..They simply continue 
to fly....on a broomstick...They are flexible like that...