It’s always a sad day when we learn of one of our patients passing away.  We recently learned that Knuckles, an English bulldog, passed away suddenly in early April.  This particular passing pulled on our heartstrings a little extra, as some of us were lucky enough to meet Knuckles and witness his success with stem cell therapy and platelet therapy in person.

Knuckles’ case was a bit different than our standard osteoarthritis case in that Knuckles was also dealing with a chronic infection in the affected joint.  This is known as septic arthritis.  His right stifle, or knee, had become badly infected after a failed surgery to repair a torn cruciate ligament and luxating patella.  Knuckles spent 2 years in pain, taking various medications, and going to rehabilitation appointments.  While his rehab helped him regain some muscle mass in his bad leg, he continued to be lame and in pain so his loving owner, Sarah, took him for a consult with Dr. Holly Mullen at VCA Emergency Animal Hospital and Referral.

Dr. Mullen recommended VetStem Regenerative Cell Therapy along with the Pall V-PET^TM, a platelet enhancement therapy system that is distributed by VetStem.  After a month of antibiotics to clear the infection in his knee, Knuckles received stem cells and platelet therapy.  In his follow up appointments, it was apparent that he had a terrific response to the therapy.  He became more active and was in less pain, so much so that he was able to discontinue his pain medications.  You can read about Knuckles’ experience with stem cells and platelet therapy here.

At first this blog was meant to be our usual “success story” blog.  When I began writing it, I pulled up Knuckles’ record in our database and saw that he was deceased.  It immediately made me sad, as he is well known around the office and has been a VetStem “poster child” so to speak.  That’s when I thought that perhaps a memorial to Knuckles would be nice.  He was certainly a special pup, loved very much by his family and all those who were lucky enough to know him.

One of his favorite activities was chasing bubbles.  Before his stem cell and platelet therapy, his leg kept him from being able to do this.  After the treatment, he was not only back to chasing bubbles, he began chasing lizards and squirrels in his new backyard!  He loved running around the yard and chasing the critters, all the while digging up mom’s plants.  She didn’t mind though.  In fact, when I reached out to Sarah to get her permission to write this blog, she informed me that he passed doing just that.  While sad, I couldn’t help but smile envisioning Knuckles’ big bulldog face covered in dirt with that silly bulldog smile.

Knuckles will be sorely missed, that is for sure.  But perhaps his legacy can live on in his story and his experience with stem cells and platelet therapy.  If his story reaches just one person who is searching for treatment options for their dog with a similar condition, then we’ve succeeded at carrying on his legacy.

Run free big guy!