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All That You Need To Know About Stem Cell Therapy for Dogs

28 14:58:41

Probably you have heard of stem cell therapy but with respect to the treatment of human beings. Pets, just like human beings suffer from various ailments. Most of the treatments for human beings can be applied to pets. Thus, when you talk of stem cell therapy for dogs it is just like the usual stem cell regenerative treatment for human beings, but in this case it’s applied to dogs. This is a very helpful treatment for dogs, but it’s important to note at this early stages that it’s costly. The average cost of this treatment surgery in the U.S. is about $2,500. Note however that this is just an approximation. It can be higher or lower in your local or preferred veterinary clinic.

Stem cells are preferred for medical reasons because of their ability of taking on traits of virtually all types of cells, then replicate many times. However, these cells are also a subject of medical controversy since the most versatile stem cells can be only harvested from embryos. In stem cell treatment, the cells in the body of the patient are utilized. This is not just effective in human beings but has also proven to work in animals.

How stem cell therapy for dogs works

Before your dog is put through stem cell therapy, a veterinarian will evaluate it to determine if it is the right candidate for the treatment surgery. The ideal dog for this process should be in good health, but suffers from hip dysplasia or arthritis, and has not responded well to typical medications for these conditions? Thus, stem cell therapy is not a first choice treatment and will only be applied as treatment of last when the traditional methods of treating hip dysplasia or arthritis have not worked well, or have not worked at all.

The first step in stem cell therapy for dogs involves the collection of fat cells from the body of the dog. This is done to collect regenerative cells which can do various things.
1.    The regenerative stem cells release chemicals which can help decrease the rate of inflammation.
2.    These cells send chemicals to the dog’s body and in so doing bring healing to that particular area.
3.    They can regenerate damaged tissue in the dog. In other words, these cells will help the dog reproduce tissues as it did when it was young.

Does the process have any side effects?

Any surgical treatment in this world has some side effects. However, because in stem cell therapy it is the dog’s own cells which are used to replace other cells in the body, there is less chance of interaction or rejection. Thus, this treatment has fewer side effects as compared to similar treatments where synthetic cells are used.

What’s the success rate of this treatment?

According to veterinarians, a dog will immediately or gradually begin showing signs of improvement after stem cells have been injected in to its blood stream. Although in some instances, signs of arthritis and hip dysplasia may begin showing again after some period (usually a couple of years since the last procedure), stem cells can be injected again and improve the pain and discomfort to the dog’s joints.