Can your dog benefit from a regenerative treatment such as stem cell therapy?
I met Lisa Muscillo, on VetStem’s Facebook page. As we are both equally delighted at what stem cell therapy did for our dogs, I asked her to share her story with us.
Zeus’ story
Zeus is a 10-year-old Rottie. He is a highly intelligent soul who is acutely aware of my love for him. That’s why for his 10th birthday I got him a present of stem cell regenerative therapy!
An old injury strikes back
Zeus had an old injury he received when he was about 4 yrs old playing ball. He was practically raised on a tennis court due to my passion for the sport. He should have been named Deuce. His injury was a hairline fracture of his front right wrist.
Over the past couple of years, it became a source of pain due to bone spurs and arthritis which formed around the fracture site. Which causes other imbalances due to compensating.
Declining quality of life
Over the past couple of years, Zeus’ injury site became a constant source of pain.
He couldn’t go on extended walks, which became increasingly shorter. He would lag behind and when I turned to look back at times he would just be sitting holding his front right paw up.
Zeus is a working dog and I had to reduce the days a week he could go to work. No more nursing home visits because he was cranky. I had to take and hide tennis balls because like any athlete his desire was still there.
For the past couple of years, he did no jumping, I had to lift him in and out of the car. I moved to another house because the stairs where we previously lived became too much of a struggle for him. He wouldn’t go to his toy box as often. Due to compensating, his hips, shoulders, and elbows became strained and arthritis.
Conventional treatment failure
His wonderful doctor and I had tried all the conventional and practical approaches – medications, physical therapy… with results I was never satisfied with.
Then last year our vet suggested considering stem cell therapy.
I was like “Yeah right !”But after some extensive research, it sounded promising. “Let’s Do It!” I said.
Stem cell treatment
It has been the single best decision I have made for my companion and best friend!
As crazy as it sounds I saw significant improvement within 2 days! Since July it has been so delightful to see my sweetheart feeling 3 yrs younger! He is smiling more and he’s got more pep in his step. I’m so happy to have given him the opportunity to feel fabulous again. It’s the least I could do for my loving & devoted best friend.
The stem cell procedure included initial blood work and x-rays. The harvesting process required a minor surgery around his rib cage where his vet removed 3 tablespoons of fat and sent it to Vet-Stem where they extracted and counted the stem cells from the fat tissue.
The 3 tablespoons of fat tissue returned about 2 million stem cells. Zeus went in the following day and was sedated to get about 300,000 cells injected into his wrist and some in his elbow. The rest of the cells are banked at Vet-Stem in San Diego for future use.
Stem-cell therapy makes perfect sense when you think about it. Your own body healing itself. I highly recommend it.
Since his treatment, Zeus feels significantly better. The funniest thing to me was when 2 days after his injections he ran to his toy box, got his big teddy and came running out of the room shaking it and wanting to get frisky with it. We can now go for longer walks. We play ball a little, mainly in the house. He goes to work more often. He’s happier and so am I and that’s all that really matters.
Related articles:
Digging Deeper: The Science Behind Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Therapy
Further reading:
Stem Cell Therapy for Cats and Dogs?