In talking to pet owners, I have seen a lot of denial about their dog or cat’s weight problem.  For some reason we make a lot of excuses or we just chose to ignore the signs that our beloved pet is overweight.  Also, we tend to take this a bit personally.  But actually, obesity in dogs is very common.  There are many studies that estimate that 25 to 40% of all dogs are overweight.  Why is this important?  Read the rest of this entry »

Do you ever share your snack with your dog?  You and your dog probably share a love of food and you have a lot in common. You play together. You eat and relax together. And if you aren’t careful about how much you eat and relax, you both might pack on unwanted weight together – excess fat that can be tough to shed.

Canine obesity is an important – and very common – medical condition with serious health implications. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has estimated that there are 41.2 million pet dogs in the United States. Other sources estimate 40 percent of those dogs, approximately 17 million, are overweight or obese. Read the rest of this entry »

Arthritis affects 46 million humans (1 in 5 adults)¹ and 11 million dogs (1 in 4 adult dogs)². It is a chronic health problem for both people and their canine counterparts, causing pain, loss of mobility, and a diminished quality of life.

For the first time ever, Pfizer Animal Health and the Arthritis Foundation are joining together –this unique partnership between a human-health disease foundation and an animal-health company is the first joint venture to explore the insights, facts, and treatment solutions for both human and canine arthritis sufferers alike. Read the rest of this entry »

Garry Jenkins, based in London, has written a great post about stem cells for dog arthritis on his blog Canine Health.

He covers what Stem Cell Therapy is, how it works, and how stem cells can improve your dog’s life.

“Dogs suffer from a range of orthopaedic problems – from arthritis, osteoarthritis and hereditary dysplasia of the hip and elbow joints, to torn tendons and ligaments and bone fractures. Veterinarians have begun achieving startling results with a revolutionary new treatment, involving the injection of stem cells extracted from the patient’s own fatty tissue.” Read more…

In our previous post (See post on November 21, 2009) we discussed other causes of arthritis in dogs such as Lyme Disease.  Since Lyme Disease is a tick borne disease, here are five quick tips you can use to help your dog avoid an infection disease caused by ticks:

Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous post I listed the main causes of arthritis in dogs. (See post from November 2, 2009 on this blog).  Aside from those, there are other reasons for arthritis, deserving of their own post.  These include immune mediated arthritis (similar to the human version called Rheumatoid Arthritis) and infectious reasons for arthritis.  For example, in different parts of the country, such as the Eastern Seaboard, if you were to take your dog to the vet for limping, your veterinarian may check for infectious diseases such as Lyme and Anaplasmosis.  Lyme Disease (and not Lime Disease) is a tick borne disease that can give your dog swollen joints, shifting leg lameness and can cause them to feel pretty down and out.

Most common signs of Lyme disease:

Read the rest of this entry »

These are the great stories I love to come across. Sarah Perham had her dog Barney treated with stem cells, and the results were so amazing to her, she started a website and blog about her dog’s stem cell procedure. 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 »

Owners have sent us some great videos of their dogs that have been treated with their
own stem cells from fat. One video link is below, but more can be found at www.vetstem.
com


WKRG.com News

Results do vary, and not all are as dramatic as for Bear. While owner surveys showed
that over 80% of dogs treated did improve, that does mean that 20% had little or no change.

No matter what treatments are used, it is important to note that weight loss, a
personalized rehab and exercise program and good teamwork between you and your
veterinarian will help your pet get the most out of the treatment.

Do you take videos of your dog? This could help you to see if they are showing signs
of arthritis and pain.