Stem Cell Treatment

[Ooky]

We just got back from Odin's surgical consult for OCD today and were very impressed with the surgeon. She is a Tufts grad and all she does now is surgery. She is all about limiting the time he is under anesthesia and will do an "adaptive plan" (my term, not hers) surgery starting arthroscopically if that will work, but if it's taking too long, going to open surgery. She talked to us for almost an hour and was very personable and I feel like Odin is in great hands. She also confirmed that his left shoulder is top notch, which was good news.

 

Apparently in 2007 stem cell therapy was authorized in the US for animals, and she is recommending we harvest Odin's stem cells to help prevent and/or treat arthritis in the OCD shoulder after he finishes growing. She has seen great results from it in treating arthritis and other degenerative joint conditions at a very high (85%) success rate. I guess he is at good to moderate risk for this later in life, and if it occurs, it can sometimes be bad. She does this procedure now about 2 times a week (stem cell therapy in ortho patients). Odin is a particularly good candidate as he is young and should have more stem cells to harvest then an older dog, and the preventative therapy, where they give him one treatment as he is healing from the surgery may successful enough that he never develops the arthritis.

 

I was just wondering has anyone heard of this and/or undergone SC therapy with their dog? What amount of dogs with surgically-corrected shoulder OCD do you see with debilitating arthritis and continuing lameness later in life?

 

The scientist in me just thinks this is SO cool, by the way, so I am trying not to be swayed too much by that. I am like Mark B and his radiographic scotch tape. My original career in biology was not ecology but medical research and cellular imaging, so I have been around a lot of Dr./Dr.s (MD/PhDs) who would go on about how freakin potentially cool this tool could be. She did not sell it to me this way, but I know that even if he doesn't get arthritis, these would still be available for other disorders, such as kidney and liver problems, hip dysplasia, etc. Just wondering about others' thoughts/experience with this.

[urge to herd]

Ooky, I've got a friend who I think had this done on his Golden at UC Davis for her knee. I'll email him and let you know what he says. Whatever they did, it's been quite successful for her.

 

My friend is traveling for his work right now, so it may take him a couple days to get back to me, but I'll forward on anything I get.

 

Glad you found a good vet! It makes a whole lot of difference.

 

Ruth

[diane allen]

I have looked into this for my old girl's arthritic feet. Check out: www.vet-stem.com

Apparently it has been used in horses for some time, but only recently in dogs. I talked with an anesthetist/pain management vet, who has done a couple hundred. Initially, they did not inject cells into carpi, only "whole body" IV, but now have some experience with the feet thing. HOWEVER, I'm still waiting for more info. Initial blast: might last 6 months and might cost $2500. And two doses of anesthetic, with nothing else to do while she's under. At this point, my girlie isn't that bad off. But then there's the trade-off: if I wait, will it be that much worse?

 

Right now, I'm not considering it. But keeping it as an option for later on.

Let us know what you decide!!

 

diane

[MaryP]

How weird! I got on here to ask if anyone had any experience with Vet-Stem and saw this post. I'm also interested to hear if anyone has any experience with this, yet. Specifically, I'm wondering if anyone has tried this with a severely dysplastic dog. My vet is trained in this new treatment. He's not pushing it on me, but offering it as an option.

 

Ooky, he has used it on a few dogs so far and one was an OCD injury. With the OCD dog, he was surprisingly impressed with how well the dog has responded. Unfortunately, he hasn't had any experience with using the treatment on a severely dysplastic dog. So, we are both unsure as to whether or not this particular treatment is worthwhile to pursue.

[Bo Peep]

I have been waiting and waiting for stem cell resource for my condition. I pray that it goes through. I don't know how others feel about this, but I'll take it.

[Ooky]

I have looked into this for my old girl's arthritic feet. Check out: www.vet-stem.com

Apparently it has been used in horses for some time, but only recently in dogs. I talked with an anesthetist/pain management vet, who has done a couple hundred. Initially, they did not inject cells into carpi, only "whole body" IV, but now have some experience with the feet thing. HOWEVER, I'm still waiting for more info. Initial blast: might last 6 months and might cost $2500. And two doses of anesthetic, with nothing else to do while she's under. At this point, my girlie isn't that bad off. But then there's the trade-off: if I wait, will it be that much worse?

 

Right now, I'm not considering it. But keeping it as an option for later on.

Let us know what you decide!!

 

Yeah, it isn't cheap. But we would pay much less then that and no extra anaethesia because she can harvest when he's under for the shoulder anyway. I still have not decided, but am encouraged by Mary P and Ruth's replies (thank you for checking with that friend, Ruth!) Mary, my surgeon mentioned she has tried this with a dysplastic dog (in conjunction with surgery, I think) and had good results. I will ask her more when I see her next!

 

I *am* attracted to the idea of preventing the arthritis all together - there is no way not to do the surgery but it would be sad to go through all that and then have him end up fairly lame anyway. I just don't know what the chances of that are, and neither does she since it has so many variables involved.

 

I will keep you all posted! He goes in for the surgery next week so we have a few more days to decide. And Diane (Bo Peep), hopefully with the change in administrations it will be approved for people soon too! Ethically, I don't see the problem with this. They are Odin's own undifferentiated fat cells, not anything embryonic.