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 »

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 »

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 »

Am I too old for stem cells for my arthritis?

Recently there was a segment on 60 Minutes entitled “21st Century Snake Oil” that profiled the use of stem cells in humans for conditions that were over represented, over promised and understudied.  The segment showed how people suffering from ALS were taken advantage of because they were so desperate for a cure.  Unfortunately, it is companies and clinics like these that inhibit the progress of stem cell medicine.

Vet-Stem Lab

As one of the first veterinary stem cell companies in the world, Vet-Stem sets the standard for other veterinary stem cell companies. The reason why Vet-Stem has a mandatory training class for veterinarians who want to use stem cells for dogs with arthritis is to teach them the science behind regenerative medicine.  Read the rest of this entry »

 One of the most common injuries a dog can get is a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).  The tearing of the ligament happens in healthy athletic dogs as well as overweight dogs when they are running and suddenly change direction.  The ACL and the posterior cruciate ligament are two ligaments that cross each other as one travels from the front to the back of the knee joint, and the other travels from the back to the front. What does the ACL do?  This ligament is a fibrous band of tissue that attaches your dog’s femur with their tibia, making the knee joint a hinge. 

Sam Szabo - Forever Remembered

GUEST BLOGGER: Ms. Julia Szabo – New York City.  In 2008, my pit bull Sam had a tremendously successful experience with Vet-Stem: The brilliant Dr. Bob Harman and his team basically “Benjamin Buttoned” my beloved dog.

Sam’s stem-cell saga started two years ago, in April of 2008, when he collapsed on the sidewalk during a routine outing. He’d had mild arthritis since his ACL surgery several years before, but his joints grew progressively more stiff. Eventually, both of Sam’s hind legs gave out and he collapsed on the sidewalk in a humiliated heap. I got him home and immediately began researching Sam’s options.

That’s when I learned about the high-tech hope for dogs with arthritis (and horses and cats): Vet-Stem, the incredible therapy pioneered by Dr. Bob Harman of San Diego. I brought Sam to the vet for an exam, which determined that he was OK to undergo anesthesia even at his advanced age (14 years). It was a risk, but it was one well worth taking. My dog seemed depressed. He used to urinate by lifting his leg with an extension to rival the young Baryshnikov’s – but his limbs were now so weakened that he was relieving himself with all four feet on the ground, looking resigned and sad. Sam was not living; he was existing. Read the rest of this entry »

Over a decade has passed since the discovery of stem cells in fat tissue.  Dr. Pat Zuk at UCLA has just published an incredible review article on the history and current status of the adipose stem cell.  This review covers the discover and the rise of the adipose stem cell to be one of the “most popular adult stem cells currently being explored today” according to Dr. Zuk.  There is an excellent review table that shows the many, many articles on the research activity around the adipose stem cell, but more importantly, also shows the many current and past human clinical trials in real diseases such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, and arthritis.  This quote says it all:  “Looking back, the isolation of the ASC (adipose stem cell) seemed to preface a decade that could easily be named the “decade of the adult stem cell.”  I have emailed Dr. Zuk copies of the Vet-Stem published clinical trials with hopes she will include them in future publications since our data shows the striking clinical benefit in dogs and horses with arthritis and improvement in their quality of life.  Please check out the related blog post on the Vet-Stem Dog Arthritis clinical trial. Also you can download the actual paper on the clinical trial at Vet-Stem.com.

I have devoted previous posts to the important subject of pet obesity and the effects on canine and feline arthritis.  I would like to revisit the subject again with some great new information  from veterinarian and author Dr Ernie Ward.  I pulled some interesting facts out of the article but if you would like to read it in it’s entirety click here.  Dr Ward is passionate about educating pet owners about pet obesity. Why is obesity in pets on the uprise?  Part of the obesity problem is lack of exercise and poor portion control.  According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), when it comes to expressing our affections with food, we are doing our animals a lot more harm than good. Read the rest of this entry »

Ted Robinsob and Stylish - treated with stem cells for arthritis

Arthritis is a painful, debilitating joint disease that can develop in any animal. It can be the result of a traumatic injury to the joint or can develop so slowly that many pet and horse owners may not even recognize the progression of the disease.  While this blog is focused mainly on arthritis in dogs, I thought that I would spend a little time discussing arthritis in horses.  According to the AVMA 2007 pet ownership and demographic study, there are about 7.3 million horses in the US.  It is estimated that 60% of the lameness issues in horses are due to arthritis, which extrapolated out is about 4 million horses!
Read the rest of this entry »