You want the best for your companion when it comes to health care.  Your veterinarian has recommended Stem Cell Therapy as the best treatment for your dog with arthritis.  The pain from your dog’s arthritis has not been controlled very well with his regular pain medications and he just is not able to enjoy life.  He may be older, but clearly he has a lot of life to live!  This is a common scenario and one in which you need to evaluate the costs and how to afford the best treatment.  Luckily, there are now a number of great options to help with financing this treatment if you can’t just write the check today.

Always discuss the options available through your veterinarian and see what the clinic provides.  Veterinarians are kind-hearted and want to see that your pet gets the very best of care. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer is here and more and more Americans are including their pets in travel plans.  In a survey conducted by PetRelocation.com, “61 percent of pet owners surveyed said they travel more than 50 miles with their pets at least once a year, with 38 percent of those pet owners stating that they travel as often as once a month with their pets.”

Here are some recommendations on how to make an arthritic dog comfortable when they travel with you. Read the rest of this entry »

I think part of what makes it so hard to see our beloved little friends in pain is that we can’t explain to them why it hurts.  We try to decipher where the pain is from telltale signs like limping, getting up slowly, or not being able to make it up the stairs anymore.  But some animals are just stoic so we may not even notice their problem until it’s much worse.  If only they could speak up!  Luckily, technology and experienced veterinarians really help in figuring out the problem and finding the best solution to bring our pets back to their playful, happy selves.

Meet Baxter, a happy Yellow Lab with elbow dysplasia.  Raymond & Carolyn tell his story about how Vet-Stem helped bring joy back to his life. Read the rest of this entry »

People often believe that Vet-Stem is in the business of Stem Cell Research.  In reality, we are in the business of delivering an animals own stem cells to practicing vets for treatment of arthritis in real patients every day.  My partner of over 20 years is Mr. Mike Dale.  He is the Chief Operations Officer for Vet-Stem and also the head of Marketing.  It is his job to deliver the message about real stem cell therapy to our veterinary customers, and to you.  I asked him to write a short post to you:

How we communicate stem cell medicine to the world.
         By Mike Dale

I have an interesting job.  I get to communicate a message of hope and life changing medicine.  I get to offer the future of medicine today, every day. Read the rest of this entry »

When you visit your veterinarian to discuss treatment options for their arthritis, you will likely spend time discussing all of the options available, hopefully including stem cell therapy.  I am presuming in this post that you have already been through diet changes and have tried supplements.  Now you are considering alternatives and how they might apply to your dog.  These could include more advanced pain medications, surgery, or even joint replacement.  Stem cell therapy is the newest option, really only available for dogs since 2008.  Only about 10% of practicing veterinarians have advanced training in regenerative medicine and even recent veterinary graduates have had limited exposure to regenerative stem cell medicine.  Your primary care veterinarian is probably a general practitioner and also a business owner.  Long hours can make it difficult to keep up with all the latest scientific journals.  So how do you discuss this new treatment for arthritis with your veterinarian to see if your dog is a good candidate? Read the rest of this entry »

 
In my second post on the UC Davis Veterinary Regenerative Medicine Meeting, I covered the presentations by Dr. Caplan and Bill Casner. UC Davis also presented data on the use of stem cells in horse deep flexor tendon injury (leads eventually to arthritis).  Dr. Larry Galuppo reported that 47 horses were treated (45% were severe injuries). 65% of these horses treated with stem cells recovered to return to work.

Read the rest of this entry »

Although this blog is focused on dogs and arthrtis, this great story by our own employee, April, supports the prior posts about pet insurance.

April T:
You know you’re going to do just about everything you can to save the life (and improve quality of life) of your beloved pets. Why make the decision any more difficult by deciding whether or not you can afford it?  Pet insurance saved me from paying $8,000 for surgery, which would have hurt for a long time. Read the rest of this entry »

Stem cells have been and will continue to be a hot news topic.  They are praised, cursed, debated and researched.  So what do we know about how they actually work? 

First, these little cells we call “stem cells” can be found anywhere in the body.  You are alive right now because your own stem cells replace the hundreds of millions of cells you lose every day as a part of normal living.  They are your “spare parts” and are essential.  If your dog has arthritis, stem cells help replace the lost cartilage caused by the disease.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been eight months since I started blogging – more that 60 posts about arthritis in dogs and the causes, treatments, and prevention.  Topics like diet, exercise, and stem cell therapy.  We have also shared our pain and talked about how to tell if your pet has arthritis.

Great stories of dogs and their owners and veterinarians have been posted.  We have linked you to other experts and analysis of the latest research data and reports.  I hope you have gained a better understanding of arthritis and how to prevent or treat it in your own animals. Read the rest of this entry »

In my March 12 post on the UC Davis Veterinary Regenerative Medicine Meeting, I covered the general topics presented at the meeting.  Today I want to go a little more in depth on the results of stem cell treatment of arthritis that were presented at the meeting.  First, the keynote speech by Dr. Arnold Caplan of Case Western Reserve University was the highlight of the meeting.  Dr. Caplan described how stem cells really work (I will cover in a blog specifically on this topic very soon).  Read the rest of this entry »