February 11, 2011
By Heather Turner
CORVALLIS, Ore. — A retired military dog is recovering after undergoing a unique type of stem cell therapy at Oregon State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
His tail is wagging hard, and there are big smiles all around, as Debbie Richter is reunited with her German Shepherd Basco she adopted last fall.
The seven-year-old dog is a true veteran.
“Well in my eyes he’s an incredible hero. He was a soldier,” Richter said.
He’s been in service since he was a year old and spent his last five years of duty in Baghdad.
“He was doing bomb detection work to protect our military men and women and civilians in Iraq, so he’s as heroic as every soldier that’s there, be it K-9 or human,” Richter said.
But all his hard work may have contributed to his severe osteoarthiritis in his left hip.
“Decided we needed to do something because he loves to play, and loves to run, and he just needs to be able to do that in his years of retirement without pain,” Richter said.
After researching her options, she found a company with a different type of stem cell technology that offered to donate their product in honor of Basco’s service.
OSU’s Dr. Wendy Baltzer performed the surgery Thursday.
Baltzer says she’s been doing stem cell surgeries for a few years now, but never one with one product by MediVet America.
She says stem cell therapy normally takes a few days to complete the entire process.
But with this technology, the surgery wrapped up in a few hours.
“We had to harvest fat for its stem cells, and so we took that out of right behind his shoulder,” Baltzer said.
The stem cells are then separated and activated, and injected into the affected area.
The hope is that the stem cells will turn into cartilage that will help Basco walk with ease.
It’ll be a few weeks until they find out how well it worked.
Retired Military Dog Receives Stem Cell Therapy | KEZI
URL: http://kezi.com/healthwatch/204124
