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 Scooters Savior
       Location: "Si Fi" Ville | I’m looking for every bit of information no matter how small on stem cell therapy especially in regards to wounds as a result of accidents, deep cuts to muscle. I would appreciate any suggestions of vets who have experience and regularly perform these procedures, avg costs, avg number of treatments, pros and cons, and anything else anyone wishes to add.
I appreciate the broad scope of knowledge each of you possesses and thank you for sharing this with me. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 899
       Location: Idaho | I don't know much about it, but when I was working for an NCHA trainer down in Texas they had a mare that had a tendon injury on her front right leg. They said she was supposed to have a 6 month lay off. I don't remember a whole lot as it was over 10 years ago, but I do remember they sent her off and did stem cell surgery on her. They had told us to do some hand walking about 20 minutes a day, and she was healed and ready to ride in about a month after her surgery.
Money was not an issue for them so I'm sure the surgery was pricey especially for those type of results. Whatever it was, that stuff is clearly amazing for healing purposes.
Edited by DashNDustem 2018-04-08 4:23 PM
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 It Goes On
Posts: 2262
     Location: Muskogee, OK | Stem cell therapy has shown to be very promising, and I have first hand seen great results on many different cases.
First thing to know, it's expensive. The type of stem cells that I have experience with are harvested from your own horse and then sent off for stem cell culture. These are by far the superior stem cells out there. Your veterinarian usually will have to harvest bone marrow from your horse, commonly from the sternum and then send that bone marrow off for stem cell culture. The harvesting is a 15-20 minute procedure and then it takes about 3 weeks for the stem cells to be cultured (or "grown"). The company I use is called ART (Advanced Regenerative Therapies) and they also will keep a small portion of stem cells banked, so if your horse needs them in the future all they have to do is culture out some more from the portion they have banked.
The cost will be very dependent on your area, and what type of stem cells. The process I outlined above is generally a minimum of $2500-3000.
The types of injuries that I have seen the best success on are soft tissue type injuries- Tendons, ligaments. I have had the most experience with using stem cells in stifles for meniscal tears, cartilage defects etc. and I have seen great results.
It is important to know that stem cell therapy in no way is a "short cut" or replacement for rest. Generally speaking it does NOT speed up healing, although they do have anti-inflammatory factors that help make the horse more comfortable. What has been proven is that the QUALITY of healing is improved as compared to just rest/rehab. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1718
    Location: Southeast Louisiana | I got my dog into a stem cell study for arthritis. I think we got the placebo. It hasn't been confirmed yet, because the study doesn't end for another few months, but people are raving about how it's some kind of wonder drug! (figure of speech, I know it's not a drug) My regular vet spoke very highly of the procedure when I spoke with him about it, before getting into the study. I wish I could recommend an equine vet. Good luck with whatever you're going through! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 618
 
| My filly got her foot hung in the fence and tore up her foot. I took her in and vet used a stem cell patch, stitches and cast to expedite healing. I'm not sure how its going to turn out bc we're only a few days in but my vet has used them a lot and highly recommended this course vs me bandaging every other day.
I believe the company producing patches is Animatrix??? |
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