Modern medicine has been using stem cells for more than thirty years in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. But in the past ten years, scientists have realized the great potential of using stem cells to treat various ailments. Currently around the world, research is being done focusing on the use of stem cells to treat diabetes, spinal injury, brain damage, and heart disease. In veterinary hospitals, stem cells are now being used to treat dog and horses having orthopedic conditions.
What are Stem Cells?
What makes stem cells different from other cells is their ability to renew themselves and transform into different specialized cell types. In embryos, stem cells function as the building blocks of specialized embryonic tissue that will eventual transform into the different organs. In adult human beings, stem cells help repair the body as well as produce new cells for the skin, intestinal tissues, and blood.
Since harvesting stem cells from embryos carry with it a lot of moral, religious, and philosophical issues, stem cells used in research and in treatment are often harvested from the umbilical cord blood and bone marrow.
Stem Cells Therapy for Dogs
Stem cell therapy for animals has advanced in leaps and bounds. Any moral or ethical controversy is eliminated since animal stem cell therapy does not use cells from embryos. Rather, stem cells are harvested from body fat. These stem cells are used to help speed up the repair of bone, ligament, and tendon damage.
Ever since the procedure was made possible in 2005, about 3000 dogs have been treated with stem cells. Clinical tests have proven that stem cell therapy is effective in controlling cartilage and bone damage caused by dog arthritis, most especially in the hips and elbow. In fact, most dog owners who have decided to use stem cell therapy on their dog are people who have not seen any improvement in their dog’s quality of life and have exhausted all other possible treatments for dog arthritis.
One company that provides stem cell therapy is MediVet. The procedure extracts fat from the dog’s shoulder, after which the stem cells are separated. These stem cells are activated and are injected into to the affected joint. MediVet assures that after the procedure, your dog will be “awake, alert, and can go home immediately.”
Dog sports are a fun way for dog owners to have their pets compete in events that test a dog’s mental and physical abilities. Unfortunately, just like human athletes, sporting dogs can get injured while competing. These injuries are usually musculoskeletal in nature, which in time, contributes to the development of dog arthritis.
Below are the three most common injuries in sporting dogs:
Muscular trigger points or knots are painful muscle bands which can cause lameness and stiffness in the affected area. This type of injury is commonly the result of muscle fatigue or trauma.
Neck or back pain could mean a lot of things. However, a common injury in the said area may be a result of a slipped disc. Discs are shock absorbing cushions found between the individual bones of a dog’s spine. Although they do not actually "slip," a disc may rupture, allowing the gel like substance in the affected disc to escape. The disc material can place pressure on the spinal cord or on a single nerve fiber resulting in pain.
A knee injury usually involves the cruciate ligaments. When one of the ligaments gets torn, it causes the knee joint to be unstable. Sporting dogs competing in sprint competitions are most prone to the injury.
Treating Sports Injuries
For sports injuries, prevention is always better. Treatment, no matter how effective, is not an assurance that an injured dog can regain normal performance. Adopting a safe physical routine will help prepare your dog for the rigors of competition. Proper diet and the right kind of supplements will provide your dog with the right amounts of protein, calcium, Omega-3, vitamins E, D, and B complex are good ways to keep your sporting dog’s muscles, bones, and joints healthy.
But if your dog does get injured, getting the correct diagnosis is essential. Trigger points can be treated with physical therapy, and massage. Slipped disc can be treated with anti-inflammatory medications and pain killers, although in severe cases, surgery can be an option.
A tear in one of the cruciate ligament injury would most often need surgery. However, to complicate matters, there are many surgical procedures that can be used. None have been medically proven to be more effective than others but here’s my take on cruciate ligament surgery:
Extracapsular suture. Also known as a de Angelis suture or lateral fabellotibial suture. It is a fast and effective procedure with a low complication rate, especially for small dogs.
Tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO). This technique involves cutting the tibia (shin bone) so that it can be repositioned to make the knee joint more stable. It works well, especially for large dogs, but comes with a higher complication rate.
Tibial tuberosity advancement (TTA), and triple tibial osteotomy (TTO). These are newer techniques but are a similar concept to the TPLO.
All of the surgical procedures are effective, however, it is important discuss the options with your veterinary surgeon and choose which will be the best for your dog. Do not be ashamed to consider the cost of the procedure, as the newer surgical techniques can be twice or thrice more expensive. Nonetheless, the need for early treatment cannot be stressed enough as this will lessen the advancement of dog arthritis.
When your dog has been scratching and nibbling the same area of skin for some time, he may be suffering from a skin infection or allergy. Common dog skin infections are usually caused by:
Allergies. Some common allergens are pollen, mold, dust, and dust mites.
Skin parasites. Fleas, ticks, gnats, chiggers, deer flies, and mites have bites that can irritate the skin.
Fungi and bacteria.
Treating skin problems such as parasites and infections caused by either fungi or bacteria can be simple. There are spot-ons, shampoos, soaps, powder, and ointments that can be bought over the counter, and are effective treatments. To treat dog allergies occasional or long term use of cortisone is the most common and effective way for settling down inflamed, itchy skin. This may be combined with antibiotics and insecticides. Although identifying the allergens would be a great help, the process can be difficult and frustrating.
Cortisone is a potent anti-inflammatory steroid that will have an adverse reaction with non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Rimadyl and Metacam. In addition, prolonged steroid use also speeds up the process of dog arthritis.
Safe Treatment
To safely treat your dog that is suffering from both dog arthritis and skin allergies, the right thing to is to replace either NSAIDs or cortisone with another medication. I would recommend sticking with cortisone since there are many available treatments for dog arthritis (please read previous entries on the said topic) such as:
Adequan or Cartrophen injections. These medications are known to improve joint mobility, neutralize damaging chemicals (enzymes) and stimulate cartilage cells. They might help counteract the damage caused by the cortisone.
Tramadol, painkillers, or analgesics.
Fish oils with their Omega-3 are great for arthritis and skin problems.
Anti-oxidants help protect cartilage cells against what is called oxidative stress.
If you want you could always tell your vet to forego with the cortisone treatments and look for other skin treatment alternatives such as cyclosporine or anti-histamines.
Dog owners should be aware of the medical history of their dog. This includes the medications that are being administered to your dog. In this way, you can prevent NSAIDs and cortisone being administered and search for alternate treatments that will provide your dog with the best treatment and quality of life he can get.
