At Horseshoe Lake Animal Hospital, we do all we can to offer cutting edge diagnostics and therapy to our clients. One of the newest forms of therapy for arthritis and other orthopedic problems in our canine friends is autologous stem cell therapy (ASCT).
While still in its infancy as a therapeutic tool, ASCT involves harnessing one of the body's most powerful healing tools and using it to help improve quality of life for dogs with chronically painful joints.
The procedure involves surgically collecting a sample of fat from the patient and sending the fat to a lab where it is processed to collect stem cells. After the collection of stem cells is complete, the lab ships the stem cells back to us and we inject them into the affected joint or site of injury.
While this type of therapy remains fairly new, early reports show promise in decreasing the pain and lameness of dogs with arthritic conditions and other orthopedic injuries. Although we will probably never be able to cure arthritis, we welcome this exciting addition to our therapeutic arsenal as we try to keep our patients pain free.
In the future, ASCT may be used to treat a wider variety of conditions such as liver, kidney, or immune mediated diseases. If you have questions or would like more information regarding ASCT, please contact us by phone or email.
