Last week I had the honor of presenting our Vet-Stem stem cell treatment success data at the First North American Veterinary Regenerative Medicine Meeting.  Sponsored by our partners at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, it was an incredibly intense and exciting stem cell meeting focused specifically on veterinary medicine.  I presented data on arthritis in horses and arthritis in dogs and how stem cells can reduce the pain and improve quality of life and even performance.  There were over 40 presentations from universities, private practices, and industry.  The amount of sharing and open discussion frankly surprised me.  It is the first of many to come I am sure.  In my upcoming blogs I will provide you with a glimpse into some of the exciting possibilities being researched.  But for now, be proud that the data from your dogs and your horses (those that have used stem cells) was the most solid and clinical proof of how well these cells work in real patients.  I presented data on over 3,500 cases of orthopedic injury and disease including pain from arthritis and how animals can return to a useful and happy life after treatment with stem cells from adipose (fat) by their Vet-Stem trained veterinarian.

As all of you know, I am personally dedicated to Vet-Stem and the mission of relieving pain in our animal companions. I am proud of what Vet-Stem has accomplished but I am a veterinarian first and foremost. I often use the Internet and read literature to find new ways that dogs can be treated for arthritis.  In my travels, I see many blogs, stories, YouTube videos, and publications about cell therapy and how it helps treat arthritis in dogs.

As we start a new year, I wanted to share a list of the best sites and stories of 2009 that can provide more information and different perspectives on arthritis and stem cell therapy.  Happy reading!

OzPets.com – Our friends in Australia.

Dog-Care – Suite 101:  A great overall review of therapy.

WebVet.com: Dr. Pamela Schwartz of AMC in New York City.

Buzzle.com: A good summary of natural treatments.

Scoop:  Nice review of natural treatments and weight management.

The question of human stem cell treatments is one I get asked often as I travel around the country.  The answer is yes, but don’t pick up the phone to call your doctor quite yet.  The process for people takes considerably longer than stem cell treatments for dogs and is filled with red tape that is both political and scientific.

I am speaking at the 2010 Stem Cell Summit in NYC next month and presenting a summary of the collective experiences of all our vets, owner, and patients from the last seven years.  We are all leaders and our data does make a difference. Read the rest of this entry »

When we started Vet-Stem in 2002, many people said it was unrealistic and unreasonable to expect that stem cell therapy for dogs and horses would succeed like we had hoped it would.  The following quote is one I always follow:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”  George Bernard Shaw.

Thanks to all of you who trusted that stem cells could help your beloved pet (all 5,000+ of you!), we have started a revolution in the treatment of horses, dogs and cats with arthritis and tendon and ligament injuries. Read the rest of this entry »

When your pet is treated with adipose stem cells for arthritis in their joints, it is common to ask how long the treatment will last and when should you expect to need to retreat.  In survey data returned from owners of dogs treated with Vet-Stem therapy, over 2/3 of all dogs are not retreated during the first year.  Read the rest of this entry »

This blog is all about hope and helping our furry friends have the best quality of life possible.  But eventually, we all reach that point where we have to decide if it is time to say goodbye.  In each of our lifetimes, we may have to tread this path 4-5 times, or more for those of us with multiple buddies.

My wife, Sue and I had to make this decision this last week.  Our border collie, Ritz, was 13.  A sudden paralysis of her hind end was the first symptom.  Since we are in the stem cell business, I immediately took her to a quality clinic here in San Diego, and Dr. Nancy Hampel did a complete examination.  Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently interviewed on a live pod cast with my friends at Pet Sentinel and I am always blown away by the love and dedication that pet owners have towards their best friends.  I thought in this blog I would address a lot of the common questions that came up during our discussion.  A common question was “Can I store the extra cells for use in the future?”  So if you and your veterinarian have chosen stem cell therapy as the right choice for your pet, then you already understand the basic process:  your vet will collect a small fat sample, the lab purifies out the stem cells, and then they are injected back into the painful joint.  But that is not the end of the story.  Read the rest of this entry »

A common question is “when will this be available for humans?” New therapies do take longer to be allowed in people, but the good news is that Vet-Stem has collected very valuable data from the thousands of dogs and horses that we have helped veterinarians treat for OA and tendon and ligament injuries. The dog is actually a very good model for human osteoarthritis. Dogs are also prone to similar soft tissue injuries such as cruciate ligament ruptures (ACL, knee injury) and tears, conditions that veterinarians have seen great improvement in healing by using stem cells. Read the rest of this entry »

With the advent of the internet the amount of information both accurate and interesting is absolutely amazing. As a veterinarian I am constantly challenged to keep current with all the latest advancements, and with stem cells this can really be a challenge. A common search engine for medical literature is PubMed (use www.pubmed.gov if link does not work). Over the past few years the number of reviewed papers on fat derived stem cells has seen incredible growth. There are advances in what stem cells are being used for and in the knowledge of how stem cells do what they do. Read the rest of this entry »