Regenerative veterinary medicine

Regenerative Therapy to Treat IVDD: Bailee’s IVDD

Intervertebral disk disease (IVDD) can be a devastating diagnosis for your dog. The condition can be extremely painful and lead to various degree of impaired mobility including paralysis. Never underestimate the degree of pain your dog might suffer even if they don’t show it. IVDD is a degenerative process in the intevertebral discs that leads to disc displacement, swelling, or…

by Jana Rade

Regenerative Medicine and CCL Tears: My Two Cents on Regenerative Approach to Treating Cruciate Ligament Tears in Dogs

Are surgery or conservative management the only options for the treatment of CCL tears in dogs? Your dog has injured their cruciate ligament; now what? Invasive surgery is scary and conservative management can be daunting and has a questionable chance of success. Are there any other treatment possibilities? Could regenerative medicine work? Maybe. What is veterinary regenerative medicine? Regenerative medicine…

by Jana Rade

PRP for Partial Cruciate Tear: Pearl Is Running Again

Dogs with different clinical conditions with different outcome goals, including musculoskeletal conditions, can benefit from platelet therapy. Pearl’s story Pearl was found as a stray on the streets. She was a bloody little malnourished baby girl. Veterinarians were not able to determine exactly what caused her leg disfigurement. However, because of the scar tissue and the scarring around her torso,…

by Dr. Jeff Schaffer

VetStem Therapy for Dogs: Back to Playing Fetch–Stuart’s Story

VetStem regenerative therapy gives Stuart his life back. What do Labrador Retrievers enjoy the most? Retrieving, of course. Which, in modern days, translates to playing fetch. JD loved fetching and would keep at it as long as anybody was throwing things. Neither Jasmine or Cookie had been very keen on playing fetch. Jasmine enjoyed hiking and exploring and Cookie only…

by Jana Rade

Evaluating PRP Treatment for Dogs: Platelet-Rich Plasma Treatment (PRP) for Partial Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL) Tears—Would I Do It Again?

So it’s been over a year and a half since Cookies PRP treatment for her partial cruciate ligament tear(s). Back then, we had a long, hard debate about what we should do. There was the TPLO surgery, which is the first thing most veterinarians recommend. While the traditional suture repair worked well for Jasmine, I didn’t believe it could withstand…

by Jana Rade

Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer by day, dog health advocate, dog writer, member of the Dog Writers Association of American and an award-winning author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Endless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that simply seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to finally get a diagnosis for her initial issue. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners . What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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