A cutting edge treatment for canine arthritis with no cutting and no toxicity.
There’s a widespread, serious, and almost universal welfare issue in dog ownership — perhaps larger in scope than any other health concern because it is certain to afflict almost every dog as they age: chronic untreated arthritis. I’m lucky that all of my dogs have lived long lives, but this has meant that every one of them has eventually been afflicted with some form of arthritis. Until now, I haven’t been comfortable seeking a more robust therapy than palliative drugs to mask or dull the pain. But I’ve been following the use of stem cell therapy to treat arthritis for several years now and am ready to take the plunge and seek this therapy for my dogs.
Stem cell therapy offers the promise of robust and targeted arthritis treatment with limited intervention, no crippling side effects like liver and kidney toxicity, no lengthy recovery from major surgery and something that drugs and surgery can’t achieve: rebuilding natural tissue to restore function.
That’s why I’m excited to treat Dublin’s arthritis with stem cell therapy from VetCell. I’ll be documenting the treatment and his progress here on the blog. The process is rather simple. Your Vet extracts a bit of fat from your dog, that fat is processed into stem cells, those are injected into the arthritic joint, and that’s it.
Most animals hide their pain until it becomes too profound to mask. They literally suffer in silence lest their display mark them as vulnerable or sick to other animals. Many owners don’t know the subtle signs of pain, and so our dogs suffer.
Even when dogs do show outward signs of pain, the over-the-counter options for treatment are few and unsatisfactory. You can find dozens of varieties of pain medications for humans at the store but few if any are effective, safe, and suitable for long term treatment of your dog.
Liver and kidney toxicity of common human drugs (and even most of the prescription drugs you can get at the vet) leave many owners choosing to just not treat the pain. I’d argue that leaving your animal in pain is a worse choice than harming their kidneys or liver, but I think I’m in the minority on this view.
Drugs indicated for canine use require frequent trips to the Veterinarian and monitoring of side effects. Finding the right pill can be frustrating, expensive, and lengthy. This additional and recurring cost also leaves too many dogs untreated or under-treated. And at best, these treatments just mask the pain and do not treat the underlying disease path.
Surgery is available for only a few of the many locations dogs can develop arthritis and the risks, the extensive recovery time, and the significant cost are also barriers preventing suffering dogs from getting the relief they deserve.
I’ve never owned a dog that didn’t develop some sort of arthritis as they aged. And until now, the options for treatment have been less than stellar. VetCell’s stem cell therapy is the first arthritis option that I’m actually excited to provide for Dublin, so keep an eye on the blog as I document his treatment and evaluate its effectiveness.
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Anton
Christopher
Lawrence Dillard
Lech
Stephanie
Essere
Hey! It’s been a while since I commented on anything here. I haven’t been following stem cell treatments for arthritis this on a daily or even monthly basis, but when I was diagnosed with OA of the knees a couple of years ago, I was truly upset, and looked at various technologies and treatments because the idea of knee implants someday makes me upset. In 2016 there ought to be something better than waiting until your entire cartilaginous makeup deteriorates and cutting what was otherwise a perfectly healthy ligament, adding hardware and forcing your body to adapt through immense pain and drugs to mask it.
There was a woman who went to a clinic for stem cell treatments of OA. I saw her on a Facebook OA group ( Facebook! Where else?). She was excited about this trip because it was on an outpatient basis and only cost a few thousand which was worth the saving of the knees to her. I don’t blame her!
Post-op, she said she was feeling better in just a few days.
I snooped around a bit and found something ( darned, I didn’t keep it) that cautioned against optimism. The stem cells were thought to provide some anti-inflammatory relief and nothing more, supposedly per the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery. There was insufficient evidence for this, said someone representing the Board. And since most standard orthopedic centers were not offering it, I tended to believe them.
I did look at other cell therapies offered by places such as Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts. They have a “Cartilage Repair Center.” One of their big treatments is chondrocyte implantation, but it has some strict requirements, including being around 45 or younger, and not having any cartilage “holes”, places where the cartilage is completely missing and has bone-on-bone contact.
It’s also not covered by insurance so you basically have to be a wealthy athlete to obtain it, be able to stay out of work for several weeks, on crutches, etc.
I told my orthopedist about this. He shrugged and said “This WILL be mainstream, but probably not for another 10 years or more. Imagine when it is. What will I do for a living?”
I’m looking for another orthopedist. One that can actually get behind modern science which relieves suffering. Man, what a comment from him!
I’m wondering with all of this research, why is something not offered to humans except in wonder clinics I am skeptical of, and why it’s offered in spades to dogs, which cannot talk or look at the offerings themselves, owned by people who are emotionally vulnerable as they watch their animals decline.
I know you always look at the facts, so I’m interested in your perspective. I also wish you luck! It’s 2016. There SHOULD be better options by now. I’ve often envisioned creating a replacement cartilage that the body does not reject, that can be injected with precision and placed much like liquid/foam insulation into a roof. Form fitting and then solidifying into its final, long-lasting shape.
Chris I am with you could not let my dogs be in osteoarthritic pain. The quality of life of my canines is likewise critical when it comes to their care. You bet this is catching on stem cell surgery rather than knee and hip replacement surgery now advancing to human option choice. The degeneration of cartilage to be curtailed and regeneration of cartilage seeminly is the hope of the future for our aging caines. Wishing Dublin success in this new method of treating arthiritis because he is such a great little guy.
http://www.regenexx.com/the-regenexx-procedures/hip-surgery/
http://www.regenexx.com/the-regenexx-procedures/knee-surgery-alternative/
Yah it’s so sad for our ageing dogs to inevitably have to end up living with this kind of pain. The fact that non-steroidal and steroidal anti inflammatory analgesics can have extremely tragic results doesn’t help with our choices either. I have personally been through this with the former when my dog had sudden massive and explosive gastric haemorrhaging which ended his life unexpectedly in the most horrific way possible.
Some smaller breed types seem less susceptible or at least have an easier time living with arthritis because of size, weight, muscle to size etc. The only dogs I’ve ever seen getting away with it almost completely, up until their dying day have been JRTs and their crosses, maybe these were exceptions anyway.
If a dog isn’t suffering too terribly already I would try something like this if available, even though it appears as UCC already said the treatment has a fair way to go to be perfected, even in human trials. If there’s any safe even temporary analgesic value of the fat stem cell direct injection approach its worth it in my mind, so Im holding thumbs for Dublin.
This link is more or less the current (2015) low down on peer reviewed research on the matter in human medicine.
https://www.dovepress.com/mesenchymal-stem-cell-therapy-for-osteoarthritis-current-perspectives-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-SCCAA
What I am reading : Supporters said the therapy can bring subtle improvements, as well as sometimes dramatic changes? I am wondering if the greatest improvements in human and canine in this new option is based on attacking the disease before it reaches critical stages? I too will be reading with great interest and hope for Dublin. Degenerative Myopathy was misdiagnosed as arthritis in Collies for decades. We now have a marker and present Collies are not carriers it will be interesting to see with clearance with OFA no hip problems or elblow how much age will affect their movement in advance age?
How exciting! Will be watching to see what sort of success you enjoy. Best of luck to Dublin!
Chris I have a questions: This process of therapy know presently is costly but so are the months on present drug therapy with eventually causing other organ failures. What I would like to know is the time line on this new therapy? How many office visits with follow ups? Do they do bloodwork?
http://www.regenexx.com/orthopedics2/ This is a free download. Likely Chris as well read as you are have seen this Best Seller.
Are you receiving financial compensation for the posts relating to VetCell? This just reads a bit more like an advert than your usual posts.
As a vet, I am sceptical of some of the claims surrounding stem cell therapies. Obviously the holy grail of arthritis treatment would be to repair/regenerate cartilage without surgery or drugs which have side effects. My feeling is that if injecting stem cells in to joints really worked we would see it a lot more in people.
Great blog, I will be interested to see how you get on with this treatment.
Yes and no. I’m not getting paid by VetCell or anyone else. But when I contacted VetCell about their treatment and to find a Vet that could do the procedure, since my Vet has not done this procedure or one like it, they took to Dublin’s story and are going to work with me to get Dublin treated and my Vet trained on the procedure so that someone I trust and who is familiar with Dublin’s health history will be doing the work.
I’ve actually had the opportunity to speak with several members of the team at VetCell and will be writing about my interview in the future. I asked the very question you did about issues with stem cell adoption in humans and the like. The short answer is that stem cell treatments are most popular in humans currently with plastic surgeons for cosmetic reasons, the long answer is issues with stem cell stigma in people, the length of time this procedure has been available to dogs vs. humans, etc.
My own expectations are tempered by the realization that Dublin will be treated with Dublin-aged stem cells, so a first round might not have the same results as if he were being treated with cells harvested when he was 2 or 3 years old instead of 10. But they do culture the cells, so follow up procedures can have more bang.
So far my views of this therapy are certainly more sales pitchy because those are the things that were part of my decision process to seek this out. The whole idea of rebuilding a hip for pain treatment seems like treating pain with a lot of pain, regardless of cost. My concern here is much the same, regardless of cost I want to evaluate this on the effectiveness of the therapy versus what my dog has to endure.
And on that point, I need to revise my copy because I claimed no cutting and that’s not strictly the case. After speaking with the surgeons, the most effective fat extraction method is a small incision in the groin area, not like humans where liposuction is a primary source.
I’ll be sure to mention which aspects of Dublin’s treatment are discounted or in-kind or whatever. As of now, no money or services (save my long history with Dublin’s Vet) have taken place.
Joint replacement has many down sides but previously the only therapy available for humans after last ditch efforts to keep the human patient mobile. Drug therapy has the same results in humans as canines ultimately. You migI ht find this link enlightening…http://abcnews.go.com/Health/GMAHealth/stem-cell-treatment-ease-osteoarthritis-pain-offer-alternative/story?id=13550160
I commend Chris for chosing this path for his beloved Dublin.
This version tells of stem cells harvested from bone marrow rather than just some fat. I wonder what the difference is.
Several people decades in dogs have knee problems. When replacement joint surgery is used …well generally they have been forced to give up owing dogs. A large breed bumping into these artifical joints was considered too risky. Therefore, this topic has currently been discussed and dog people with bad knees are seeking this therapy.
You will note bone marrow is being used in Canines. http://www.save-an-angel.org/canine-cancer/canine-bone-marrow-transplants-bmt/
I’m supposedly going to need new knees one day and I’ll be DAMNED if I stop having dogs!
If there can be a jockey in the Triple Crown at age 53 with knee replacements, one can still have a decent sized dog.
This is all sidebar talk I know. 🙂
Urban Collie Chick this new therapy offers a choice which I know my own sister would have jumped rather than have knee replacement.
Kathy Bittorf, if it actually works, of course! Who wouldn’t?! But my point is, the Orthopedic branch of medicine, from what I’ve investigated in the past, is not convinced.
I just checked Brigham and Women’s hospital on their site again. They do not offer this option as any sort of standard TKR alternative whatsoever. They have cartilage repair options – none of which include stem cell work -, osteotomies and meniscus procedures.
The Hospital for Special Surgeries has an alphabetical list of conditions and then many treatment issues and articles and other written information for each. I don’t see Stem Cell Treatment sticking out anywhere as a topic for OA at least.
If neither of these two major institutions even approaches the subject, what to think?
Well, knowing from my sister how much pain she was experiencing if this had been an option she would have been their …know she would have gone anywhere and been the guiniea pig rather than knee and hip replacement. Checking found these sources which apparently are not the only sources? It is finding the trained professionals and the hospitals who support with technology. There seem to be scattered in the four corners of the United States such practicing professionals and instittuions.
http://www.texashipandknee.com/biologics-texas-institute-for-hip-knee-surgery.html
http://www.newyorkstemcelltherapy.com/patients-guide-to-stem-cell-therapy/
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/11/18/knee-injuries-to-be-treated-using-patients-own-stem-cells-at-stanford-hospital/
http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/sports-medicine/procedures/stem-cell-therapy/
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/stem_cell_research/coaxing_cells/joint_repair.html
Urban Collie Chick it seems this is like hopitals and surgeons who specialized in the new technology of heart surgery. Replacing the old method of cracking open the chest believe me greatly appeals to those who have had this procedure. However, my husband was told he would not be eligible for new procedure due to the old technology repair to his heart. He states, “Well, if I have to go through that again…I would rather die”
Kathy, I am looking at your sites now and will continue to check. However so far, when I see the Texas site and go to “research”, I read about the autologous stem cell treatments with bone marrow and it asks if anyone wants to be part of their ongoing research, to determine safety and feasibility.
Granted, I am only beginning to check this, but this suggests to me that the procedure and it’s long and perhaps even short term outcomes are inconclusive.
Some centers may not be using this for that very reason.
The stem cells are advertised as growing new chondrocytes, the cells that make up cartilage. The method used by Brigham seems to be chondrocyte growth outside of the body, and then re-implanted.
There has to be a reason for this. One thought I have is that cartilage is not easily self-repairing due to lack of the blood flow that other tissues get, so waiting for growth in the body without further destruction and breakdown by activity, or leukotriene-related inflammation, may be challenging.
Asking the stems cells to grow this IN the body is asking for generation of new cartilage cells; cells that do not grow easily to begin with. My guess is this is difficult.
I can certainly understand wanting to try almost ANYTHING before having surgical replacements. Those replacements are a trauma to the body and require a long and painful recovery process. The pain involved in the procedure has to be less than the pain of living with one’s own joints before someone usually undergoes such surgery. It’s disheartening for many!
Dogs make great guinea pigs because they cannot speak or complain. We can only sit by and watch. And they are so stoic, any relief may seem to us like more than it really is! Also if something screws up, well, it’s not like the doctor ruined a HUMAN’S life.
Urban Chick been very busy and every time I attempted to find a resource for you to explore something came up. Seems just as Chris points out who is waiting for his trusted Vet to take this extension course to have the Specialist he Trust perform the stem cell therapy. I believe you are looking for professional to consult and Specialist in this field of medicine? Texas? http://www.texashipandknee.com/biologics-texas-institute-for-hip-knee-surgery. We know some hospitals and specialist in varies fields of medicine some are better than others. http://www.txstemcell.com/ Unfortunately, there seems to be many articles of which to read to compare in other states: http://www.mayoclinic.org/departments-centers/transplant-center/expertise-innovation-research/regenerative-medicine
htmlhttp://www.emoryhealthcare.org/sports-medicine/procedures/stem-cell-therapy/ I would suggest just as Chris has done for Dublin …Research from varies links to chose institution and specialist in this field to consult with all the right questions prior to surgery. Warmest Regards in your efforts..
I have a friend who has had knee replacement surgery and still has a Lab and a Golden Retriever. Not exactly lap dogs, LOL.
I realize this version is what they have previously being doing with human beings. The learning curve of biomedical field is quite interesting. You might enjoy reading this link:http://www.petinsurance.com/healthzone/pet-articles/pet-health/Stem-Cell-Treatment-for-Dogs.aspx Several years ago ran into the first Vet who was taking the course to perform this therapy. Thereafter, many Vets admitted taking this course before it become strickly another field requiring a degree to perform.
My Aussie just turned 2 and is seriously frisbee-addicted. Can’t let a day go by without a session or he goes nuts. He doesn’t do any vaults, T&C only, but goes aerial on pretty much every catch … usually at top speed.
If he had a better thrower he’d be competitive at national level, because he brings it back just as fast as he chases it. I don’t care about that, I’m just trying to keep him happy and sane in the suburbs. “I was told there would be cattle!”
So are we hastening the onset of arthritis significantly by participating in this sport?
While exercise is good to stave off the effects of arthritis, any significant sport activity risks injury which greatly increases the risk of arthritis. So there’s no free lunch. Doing dog sports will keep your dog trim and fit and happy and which will improve longevity, but at the cost of wear and tear which means arthritis.
Makes sense, thanks. Here’s a pic of the frisbee shark in action: https://goo.gl/photos/gvLpyohPzaVMfgQ4A
Indeed Christopher there is “no free lunch theorm” to the complex solution to arthritis. However, I also note the same lack of mobility of human coach potatoes solution to this predicament is not reducing quality to life either.
When I broke my leg last year found myself in a quandary to what to do; Boy, once learned the two steps not to bear weight using a walker until cleared by the surgeon through x-rays……Modern Physical therapy was boring and modern methods for me was presenting a dilemma …I could end up in a nursing home, food is lousy and don’t like to play Bingo. Due to my age being mentally being manipulated to accept my quality of life would not be the same.
Dublin’s photos always make me smile because he reminds me a little tri collie female years ago. Pepper. The wonderful thing about our pure breed dogs. She would leap in my arms always trusting that I would catch her. High energy and smart. Her last years she required me to lift her rear to help her in the front door.
I did some reading and learned the high incident of injuries in Agility Dogs after reading this article. What I found fascinating and worked twice in my life.
If your Aussie is like many or most, you can probably take a little comfort in the fact that he’s landing on all fours at once, “box style” as one instructor told me.
Quite a number of herding dogs tend to land back feet first and then bring their fronts down. My kelpie did that a lot in his disc heyday. We didn’t compete but we spent a lot of time practicing and playing. I never tried him in competitions because I was so frustrated by his lack of retrieval OOMPH. Using multiple discs helped speed up his recall but I was sort of a downer on the whole thing.
Getting back to the point, some of those rear-leg landings were HARD! I worked to improve my throws and it helped at times but there was little I could do to quash every awkward move.
He’s 9 and change now. I don’t even know if he has arthritis in the legs but he does have a twinge in his back. As the vet said, it’s right where you could “cut him in half”; where the waistline is. We keep things easy now or he feels it later. Most of the time he’s fine though. Legs have been examined a dozen times and no vet seems concerned. They seem tight, he isn’t stiff in his gait either.
Was watching Rocky Mountain vet and he mentioned “Spondylosis”; that it happens to a lot of dogs that run and jump and twist a lot. I suppose that’s possible. My vet doesn’t want to do painkillers. She says buffered aspirin is not made for dogs and poses risks. OTOH all the drugs “made for dogs” that she mentioned supposedly require regular bloodwork to check liver and kidney values. Sounds like risk to me, so why one is better than the other I do not know.
Anyway, hopefully some things will be curbed with the Aussie landing style. I wish more dogs had it naturally. You can try to train jumping formation but it’s hard to achieve.
I hadn’t thought about how stem cells could help treat arthritis in animals. However, it seems like a great option for treating animals safely. Like you said, surgery isn’t always an option for pets, and human drugs can have bad side effects. I hope that stem cell technology continues to improve so more animals can be treated that way. Thanks for the information!
Stem cells really aren’t as innocuous as they seem. They have the potential to cause cancer / tumours in the body – though if the animal is already old admittedly this isn’t really too much of a risk and is probably worth it.
Due to the potential cancer risk I’m sure clinics are a bit more hesitant to use stem cells in humans, a) because humans live longer therefore are more likely to suffer problems over time, and b) because humans are more likely to sue for malpractice if they are injured / die as a result of their treatment.
I can definitely see how the promise of robust and targeted arthritis treatment with limited intervention and no crippling side effects would make any pet owner inclined to give stem cell therapy a try. I actually had no idea that this type of treatment was available for animals with arthritis before reading this post, but my parent’s dog is getting older and has begun developing some of the signs of arthritis herself. I know my parents love that dog and would love to give her the best treatment possible, as I’m sure is the case for any pet owner. I’ll have to suggest that they talk to a veterinarian about stem cell therapy.
I just stumbled across this site so thought you may be interested in my dog’s experience with Stem Cell therapy.
My boy is a Border Colly cross,he’s nearly 17 and up until a short while ago was still extremely mobile, meaning he could run when he wanted to and showed no outward signs of pain or lameness even tho he has a pronounced spine due to age onset spondylosis.. Fast forward a few months and after a fall from a great height he was diagnosed with Lumbosacral damage. After research on the net i read about Stem Cell Therapy and set about finding local vets in the UK that had performed this procedure.
I was pleasantly surprised to find one only 30 mins from me so quickly made an appointment for a consultation. After our initial convo the vet explained that Stem Cell was not suitable for the Lumbosacral area, leaving me and my boy to trudge off home thoroughly deflated. As soon as i got home however,an email was waiting for me.It was the vet telling me he had spoken to the Stem Cell company and they had told him the procedure was in fact suitable, So my boy was booked in for a GA to have a small amount of fat taken ffrom his groin. The fat was sent off to have the cells cultured and a month later the Epidural injection was administered,again under GA. No downtime was needed, as soon as he shook off the effects of the GA he was fine. Fast forward a week and he showed definite signs of mobility improvement. After two weeks he was running.occasionally full pelt, and actually jumped over a ditch on our regular walk instead of walking down and up the other side as he had been doing for quite a while. You can imagine the feeling of pride, elation and relief… tempered however with the nagging doubt that it was too good to be true and surely wouldn’t last long. Well..my worry was justiified. As, slowly over the last two months he has returned to his former less agile state,which whilst he isnt limping his back is once again hurting him to lie down and is always now undertaken very gingerly. I can only give my anecdotal experience, It maybe that other dogs have a much better result.. and i do find myself asking if the vet i selected was in fact a good choice, especially as he admitted he had’nt performed the procedure in the Lumbosacral area before and indeed didn’t even know it could be done. He also didnt take enough fat for a second procedure, he didnt realise this is in fact common practice. I suppose while writing this i’m trying to talk myself into maybe giving it another shot. I will visit here regularily if anyone has any questions.
I hadn’t thought about how stem cells could help treat arthritis in animals. However, it seems like a great option for treating animals safely. Like you said, surgery isn’t always an option for pets, and human drugs can have bad side effects. I hope that stem cell technology continues to improve so more animals can be treated that way. Thanks for the information!
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How’s Dublin going with stem cell therapy?