Lydia has hip dysplasia, and I was told when she was quite young that a hip replacement may be in her future. I’m hoping not, but know it’s a possibility. So when I saw this article about stem cell treatments helping dogs with dysplasia and other orthopedic problems it caught my eye for personal reasons.

Blue leads an active lifestyle: she runs four times a week around an enormous park in her hometown of Memphis, Tenn.; she likes playing Frisbee and loves swimming. But one day last November, Blue started limping — which was odd because the German shepherd seemed fit and was only 3 1/2 years old. “She wasn’t recovering as quickly as normal from a trek in the park. I thought that was just a sign of aging,” says her owner Twila Waters, 43, with a wry chuckle.

In fact, Blue had hip dysplasia, a fairly common and sometimes crippling degenerative condition in dogs and cats. The cure — a complete hip transplant — would keep Blue in recovery for up to six months. So while Waters mulled the surgery, Blue’s regular veterinarian sent Waters to see another local vet, Kathy Mitchener, who was trained in acupuncture, to treat Blue’s pain. But Mitchener had a better idea. She offered a cutting-edge stem-cell transplant, a therapy not yet available to humans, that would potentially help Blue’s hip repair itself.

The treatment took just two days last January. Mitchener had recently become certified to perform the stem-cell treatment, pioneered by the company Vet-Stem based in San Diego. She removed some fatty tissue from the dog’s abdomen and shipped the sample to Vet-Stem’s labs, where technicians used centrifuges to extract stem cells from the tissue. The cells were shipped back the next day, and Mitchener injected them into Blue’s failing hip, where they adapted and developed into the healthy cartilage and tendon cells the animal needed. Within 36 hours, Waters says, “Blue was moving well, and you could see an ease in her gait.” Vet-Stem kept a frozen store of Blue’s stem cells, in case she suffers a relapse or has another orthopedic injury, but for now, Blue is fully cured and back to running and swimming and playing with her friends.

[...]

A cycle of stem-cell treatment generally costs $2,000 to $4,000, including the extraction, surgeries and follow-up.

Read the rest here.

I’m not sure if any vets here in Austin offer this, but you can bet, if and when Lydia’s hips get bad this is definitely something I’ll want to investigate.

Technorati Tags: stem cell research, pets, hip dysplasia, pet health