Tech & Biz

Stem cells extracted from pets help treat their ailments

by kuuva | March 6, 2009 at 11:14 am

63 views | 10 Recommendations | 2 comments

I heard about this a while ago, but I thought others should know about this treatment for arthitis in their pets. How amazing would it be to get an older pet to be running around again?

Stem cells extracted from pets help treat their ailments

Meet Zoey Walsh, a teenage stem-cell recipient who is pushing the frontier of medical science.

He's a dog.

Unable to alleviate his pain with drugs and unwilling to risk another hip surgery on a dog so old, Zoey's owners turned to a treatment that involved injecting stem cells, which had been extracted from Zoey's fat, back into the animal. The stem cells stimulate repairs.[
"It did wonders," Zoey's owner, Raymond Walsh of Palos Heights said of his 14-year-old American Eskimo's first injection six months ago.

Take Daisy Benik, a 7-year-old golden retriever who had stem cells injected into both hind legs last summer after being unable to walk on her left hind leg.

"She is back to what she was. Before she had been holding her foot up, favoring it,"

An injection and anesthesia to sedate a dog before and after stem-cell extraction and injection can cost between $2,500 and $3,500.