Beau the dog, a stem cell recipient, making big strides

Two months ago, Beau Pastor, a 14-year-old Lab-chow with severe arthritis, couldn’t often get up from the floor. He needed help walking, and took a lot of pain medication every day.

His owner, Bill Pastor of Darlington, said the medication wasn’t really helping, and he was at that crossroads almost every pet owner faces at one time or another: Continue treatment or put the animal out of its misery.

That was before Pastor took Beau to see Dr. Noel Berger of the Animal Hospital and Laser Center of South Carolina in Pawleys Island.

When Beau first arrived there, staff members had to help him stand up.

But Tuesday, 60 days after a new stem-cell treatment was applied, Beau walked. He got up on his own, over and over, even on an uncarpeted floor.

“This is fantastic,” Berger said, watching Beau move. Even in a sitting position, Beau showed he was comfortable, able to bend his legs and rising on command without assistance.

Beau still hesitates a little when getting up or in the car, but Pastor said he thinks that is psychological -- Beau anticipates pain, so he’s cautious.

He hopes that in another two months, it won’t be an issue for Beau.

New process

Tuesday was Beau’s 60-day check up, and Berger is pleased with the progress in the dog and in the other 11 animals he has performed the new treatment on since he treated Beau.

Although veterinarians have been using stem cell therapy for seven or eight years, they are often expensive and take a few days to complete.

Berger was the first on the Grand Strand to try this new in-house therapy developed by Kentucky-based MediVet-America, and so far, is still the only one, although the treatment’s distributor has been talking with several more Grand Strand vets, said Bob DeWitt, spokesman for MediVet. He said the next closest veterinarian using the treatment now is in Charlotte.

The treatment itself is drug-free, and uses the body’s natural ability to heal itself by charging up the stem cells that will regenerate defective tissue.

It’s not the same as embryonic stem cell therapy, Berger is careful to point out. It’s more like donating your own blood before you have surgery.

The procedure requires an animal to have a little liposuction under general anesthesia. The vet harvests 1 to 2 ounces of adipose, or fatty, tissue, and by the time the pet wakes from the surgery, 10 to 20 million stem cells have been extracted and are being prepared.

Instead of sending the tissue to a lab on the West Coast for processing, veterinarians can perform this new procedure in about four hours.

Once the cells are harvested, enzymes and an LED light process activate them, then they are injected into the affected area on the animal.

Beau went home the same day he was treated.

There are stem cells for every organ and nerve in the body, Berger said. The trick is getting enough of the healing cells to the right place, quickly.

The stem cells will dissolve the excess bone in the ball-and-socket joints of Beau’s hips, and regrow cartilage where it has been worn away.

They will also help Beau’s heart, liver and brain.

More than 3,000 of the new stem cell kits have been delivered to veterinarians across the country, and they are seeing amazing results, DeWitt said. The kits have been used on horses, dogs, cats, a ram, a goat, camels and MediVet is talking with zoos about possible treatments,

“We don’t know exactly what to expect long-term,” DeWitt said. “These are sort of like clinical trials. But the results so far are great.” Two dogs from Kansas that had the treatments a year ago, when the procedure was almost brand new, are still showing signs of improvement, he said.

“Their owner said it’s like the clock has been turned back.”

Beau’s clock hasn’t been turned back quite yet, but Pastor and Berger said they expect to see maximum results between two and four months from now.

Pastor wasn’t expecting Beau to be a puppy again, he just didn’t want him to be in pain.

Now, he said, he has cut back Beau’s pain medicine from once a day to once every three days, and expects to be able to take him off it completely at the 120-day mark.

More pets

Berger had also planned to use the stem cell treatment on Granny, a cat nearly mauled to death by dogs. He used the platelet-rich plasma extracted from Granny’s blood, instead.

Granny was in danger of losing a leg that had almost been torn off, and was missing some large pieces of muscle.

Making the platelet-rich plasma is a phase of the stem cell extraction process. He said he put the plasma into Granny’s wounded areas, and it worked. Granny not only still has her leg, she is up and walking, happy and healthy. The treatment didn’t regenerate the lost muscle, but that hasn’t stopped the cat.

“It’s not pretty,” Berger said of Granny’s leg. “But the skin closed up around the wounds, and she has turned out to be a very spirited little cat.”

Since Beau’s treatment, 11 more animals have undergone the procedure at Berger’s office, most of them with osteoarthritis like Beau’s. One had three broken legs after being hit by a car, and another had a torn ligament.

In each case, Berger said, the animals are recovering well.

The treatment costs about $1,800, which is about half the price of the older stem cell therapy.

Pastor said the money he’s saving in medication for Beau is already covering the cost of the procedure.

The treatment might not last forever -- it’s too new to tell. But Berger banked some of Beau’s stem cells, and if he does come back for another treatment, surgery won’t be necessary. It will be a quicker and easier treatment than the first.

MediVet is already promising a new enzyme for 2012 that will increase the number of stem cells that can be extracted from a tissue sample by 10 times, Berger said.

Christmas with the family

Bill Pastor said his nieces and nephews wore Beau out on Thanksgiving, which was just a couple of weeks after the treatment.

Before, Beau only got himself up to go outside in the morning and at night, and even then, sometimes he needed to be carried.

Now, Pastor said, Beau goes out about 10 times a day -- not because he has to, but because he wants to.

Other animals that have received the treatment have had to have their movement limited during the recuperation process, DeWitt said, because they find themselves pain free and want to do all the activities that were once normal for them.

“They think they are puppies or kittens or kids again,” he said. “They don’t know that they have to take it slow and let themselves heal.”

Beau is already an older dog, so he’s mellow, Pastor said.

Berger wants to see Beau exercise more to build back up some of the muscle mass his back legs lost when he was inactive. Other than that and some age-related hearing loss, Beau seems to be in good health.

When asked if he was getting any special treats for Christmas -- like a juicy steak -- Pastor said Beau gets those almost every day.

“I’m going to stop by Burger King on the way home,” Pastor said. “That’s his favorite. He loves those little cheeseburgers.”

Pastor said he’s the one getting the treat by having Beau home and making progress.

In the past, Berger said, there wasn’t a lot that could be done for some of these animals.

But stem cell therapy -- particularly this new technology -- means a vast improvement.

“The possibilities are limitless,” he said.