Lots of our pets sadly suffer from painful arthritis just like we can, unfortunately however, they can’t communicate the pain they feel as we can. There are lots of signs and changes which you may notice which would indicate that your pets are feeling pain caused by arthritis such as:
- Difficulty getting up after sleeping or resting
- Seeming to be suffering from stiffness when they rise or first go out for a walk
- Limping
- Reduced activity when out on walks
- Struggling to get up and down stairs, on or off the sofa or not jumping into the car as usual
- Changes in behaviour
- Licking or chewing of joints
The good news is that we can now offer a new service which can help to manage arthritis symptoms and improve joint health so that your furry family member can enjoy happier and more active lives with less pain!
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy
This therapy can help the body’s ability to self-repair and reduce inflammation within the joints which leads to discomfort for your pet and can slow down the progression of this degenerative disease.
Plasma is the part of the blood where red blood cells float, and houses platelets! Platelets are primarily used for clotting but are also important in the natural healing processes of the body. PRP is collected by taking some blood from your pet and removing most of the red and white blood cells to leave platelet dense plasma behind.
Platelet Rich Plasma can help repair damage in the joint and aims to support the joint further before more chronic changes develop, which is important in helping to repair the damaged cartilage we see in all cases of osteoarthritis.
Once the Platelet Rich Plasma has been extracted from your pet’s blood, it is then injected into the joint under sedation/anaesthesia depending on your pets case. This ensures that the plasma arrives just where it is needed so that the platelets have the best chance of supporting the joint. Each pet is different, so some may need one or two injections, whereas others may have a course to see the best benefits.
Stem Cell Therapy
Stem Cell Therapy uses ‘adult’ stem cells which are very clever little cells in that they can evolve into different cell types such as cartilage cells, bone cells and fat cells which means that they are fantastic at helping the body heal!
- A small sample of fat will be taken from your pet under general anaesthetic which will be a day procedure in our clinic.
- The sample is then sent to an external laboratory to isolate, grow and activate the stem cells which can typically take 2-4 weeks.
- Your pet will then have the stem cells injected into the affected joint, tendon or ligament under anaesthesia or sedation in our clinic as a day procedure.
- Your pet will then need 2 days of rest followed by lead exercise for 7 -10 days.
- We expect to see improvement in pain and mobility within 12 weeks, but this can be seen as early as 10-14 days later.
- The effects of Stem Cell Therapy can last up to eight months, but this varies depending on the individual pet.
- Treatments can be repeated 6 or 12 months later, depending on the case.
- Your pet will have a sample of bone marrow taken from either the femur or humerus under a general anaesthetic as a day procedure in our clinic.
- We then spin down the sample in our specialist centrifuge to concentrate the sample which is then injected into the damaged joint/ligament or tendon under the same general anaesthetic that day.
Stem cell therapy allows us to isolate stem cells from your dogs own fat tissue, or sample of bone marrow, then grow the cells so that we can inject them into injured tendons and ligaments, or directly into the joint to help repair damaged tissue inside the joint.
