Treatment for arthritis, tendon and ligament injuries

Stem cell therapy, also known as regenerative medicine is used to treat arthritis in dogs and cats and tendon and ligament injuries. There are some treatments being developed for renal (kidney) failure and chronic liver disease but these are still in the testing stages.

How Stem Cell Therapy Works

Patients are evaluated to make sure that they are a candidate for the stem cell therapy. The evaluation includes an examination, radiographs and lab work.

If the preliminary tests and examination assures that the patient is a candidate, the patient is anesthetized and fat is taken from one of a few locations.

The fat is processed to extract stem cells from the fat by an independent laboratory. The lab harvests the cells and stores the cells at their facility so that if the patient needs another treatment for another joint or injury in the future, the stored cells can be retrieved.

The patient then comes back a couple of days later to have the stem cells injected into their joints, which just requires light sedation.

The patient returns once a month for three months for an examination to evaluate their progress.

We can also collect fat when a puppy or kitten is being spayed or neutered. This allows us to harvest the stem cells and save them for future use when the patient is older and develops arthritis or has an injury at some point that could be treated with stem cells.