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New Treatment Helps Dogs and Cats Walk Again

Posted on: Sunday, 13 July 2008, 09:15 CDT

A few years ago, John Jones of Twin Falls noticed his beloved Labrador retriever, Gunner, was beginning to have problems moving around.

"I just noticed he started going downhill fast,"Jones said. "He couldn't get up on the furniture anymore, he couldn't get up into the truck, just getting up from naps seems pretty painful for him.

"I've had him since he was a puppy, so watching him go through that just breaks my heart."

Gunner, who has had hip dysplasia since he was young, is now 12 years old and showing signs of arthritis. Jones gives him medication for the condition, and Gunner feels well enough that a few times a day he can run and play, catching balls in the park.

If the dog were younger, Jones would be investigating cutting-edge treatments for pet joint problems. After all, with no children, Jones said, "Money is not an object. He's my kid."

A treatment Jones might be looking into is one practiced by a former Twin Falls resident and current Los Angeles veterinarian, Dr. Jarrold Bausman. Bausman was one of the first vets to be certified by Vet-Stem, a California company that isolates pets' stem cells for reinjection into a painful joint. He has now performed the procedure on about 20 cats and dogs, with a better than 90 percent success rate.

"They're so safe, the adult-derived stem cells, because they're (the pet's) own cells," Bausman said.

There's little chance of rejection, and the procedure isn't as invasive as surgery, so pets often recover more quickly and completely than with traditional procedures used to treat the conditions Bausman now uses stem cell therapy for. These conditions include congenital joint deformities, non-healing injuries and arthritis in pets.

For example, elbow dysplasia in dogs, a painful degenerative joint disease, is very difficult to treat. Few elbows are successfully replaced, and the joint gets constant use.

"It's a fairly complicated joint, because it not only flexes and bends, but it has to be able to rotate," Bausman said. "They're pretty much stuck walking on the sore spot on their elbow."

To treat such a disease with stem cell therapy, Bausman starts by harvesting fat cells from the pet, which is usually sedated but not anaesthetized, then sends the fat to Vet-Stem, where the stem cells are isolated and sent back in a syringe. Bausman injects the cells into the joint where the pain is, and as little as two weeks later, there is noticeable improvement in the pet's mobility and comfort.

"The stem cells provide very good anti-inflammatory capabilities at the cellular level," Bausman said. The best research indicates the stem cells are not turning into other cells, such as cartilage or bone, but are rather stimulating existing stem cells in that area to regenerate, he said. This is suspected to be similar to the way that young animals are able to heal more quickly and completely from an injury than older animals. "How that happens, we don't know yet. I'm really excited to see what it turns into."

Bausman hopes that the success he has had with pets will translate into similar success in human trials, and as part of his research into the Vet-Stem process he reviewed literature about treatments intended for humans that were tried on pigs, dogs or cats.

"The human side of medicine is very, very interested in what we're doing right now. Honestly, I don't know why it isn't already happening on the human side," he said.

One reason might be that the public doesn't properly distinguish between embryonic stem cells, about which there are ethical debates, from adult-derived stem cells, which are taken from one part of a patient's body and injected into another. "There's not the moral debate or the moral dilemma" about adult stem cells, Bausman said.

Although new treatments often come with high price tags, the stem cell treatments Bausman does actually cost less than traditional therapies for the same conditions.

"They're usually out the door for right around $3,000," he said, compared to $6,000 to $6,500 for a single total hip replacement on a dog. Other vets may charge differently, he noted. "It's not a very profitable endeavor for me."

Of the animals Bausman has treated, one was a therapy dog, but the others were simply pets. Los Angeles owners may be willing to invest more in their pet's well-being than Idaho owners, he acknowledged. And some owners go even farther -- one cat was brought all the way from India for treatment after injuries from an eight-story fall failed to heal. Bausman has a video of the cat after the stem cell therapy, in which the pet is able to walk a few steps for the first time since his injuries six months before.

"Probably?"one of the best experiences in my life seeing that cat walk about two months after coming to see me," Bausman said. "Most of the folks who have come to me are at wits' end. They love their pets and want to help them feel better. Man does it feel good."

Bausman hopes the therapy will catch on, and that vets in areas as small as Twin Falls will become certified in the Vet-Stem process. "Get yourself certified, and you've got yourself a possible practice-builder," he said. At least one local vet, though, is waiting for more conclusive results before signing up for the inexpensive certification process.

Dr. Jared Morgan, vet at Green Acres Pet Center in Twin Falls, has known Bausman since they were both veterinary technicians at a Boise pet hospital a decade ago. He has been following the stem cell treatment as it has developed.

"You always want to be a little hesitant to jump into something brand new, but it is interesting," Morgan said. "The information has a lot of applicability in the sense that it's a lot less invasive than surgery. It gives a lot of hope for these younger dogs that have a lot of hip problems and arthritis."

The treatment may have come too late for Gunner, the 12-year-old Lab who suffers from arthritis. "At his age it's just not ?- I've seen my brother's dog go through surgery at age 12, and three years later she's still not recovered," said Jones, Gunner's owner. But he'll keep the therapy in mind for any future pets. "If I had a younger dog, even 8 years old or 9 years old, I'd be looking into surgical options, whatever it would take."

For owners with that attitude, there's now a whole new field of treatment options, thanks to Bausman and other vets on the cutting edge.

Ariel Hansen may be reached at  208-735-3376  or ahansen@magicvalley.com.

See it online

Watch two videos of pets that veterinarian Jarrold Bausman has treated with stem cell therapy. The videos of the post-therapy pets moving more easily, supplied to the Times-News by Bausman, are at Magicvalley.com.

A January story on ABC News' Nightline on Bausman and the treatment may be viewed at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id4109559&page1  

Find out more

Dr. Jarrold Bausman, a Los Angeles veterinary surgeon formerly of Twin Falls, is on the cutting edge of stem cell therapy in pets. The closest clinics to Twin Falls that do similar procedures are in Morgan, Utah; Cottonwood Heights, Utah; Heber City, Utah; Helena, Mont.; Sparks, Nev.; and Las Vegas, Nev. Veterinarians at these locations have been credentialed by Vet-Stem, a California company that isolates pets' stem cells for reinjection. Vet-Stem may be reached at vet-stem.com or 1-88-VET-STEM-1. Bausman may be reached at Animal Specialty Group in Los Angeles at  818-244-7977 .

Source: The Times-News

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