Is your dog suffering from osteoarthritis, or a tendon or ligament injury?
Platelet therapy is definitely an option
for you to consider
Talk to your vet!
What is involved in platelet therapy? | What is the likelihood of treatment success?
How did you assess efficacy in the pilot study? | How long does it last?
Do patients need more than one treatment? | What is involved in the procedure?
How long does it take? | Is there a specific post treatment regiment?
How will the patient feel immediately after the treatment?
How long does it take to recover and see a benefit?
Canine Platelet Rich Plasma offers a safe and natural cell therapy to relieve the pain of joint disease or injury, promote healing and reduce recovery time by using your dog's own blood.
What is involved in platelet therapy?
Most platelet therapies are milieus of cells, cell-parts, and plasma constituents. While there is no agreement on what the best product composition is for any given indication, the one thing all platelet therapies have in common is the concentration of platelets.
Current evidence suggests that platelet concentrations of at least three times above naturally occurring levels provide effective treatments. There is some evidence to suggest that extreme concentrations, roughly ten times or more, may be less effective in some applications.
What is the likelihood of treatment success?
Pilot data suggests that dogs under the age of ten with significant lameness show the best response, with 91% of them experiencing a clinically compelling improvement in lameness when rated by both dog owners and vets alike.
How did you assess efficacy in the pilot study?
Canine patients in a pilot study were evaluated pre and 3 months post-treatment using the Hudson Visual Analog Score (VAS) questionnaire, an assessment tool correlated with force plate kinetics3.
Using vet enrollment data from the pilot program, researchers found that improvements greater that two points on the ten point VAS scale for the first client treated strongly correlated with a vet's likelihood to stay enrolled in the program. They define this two point threshold as a compelling improvement and use it as a benchmark to differentiate between small, but statistically significant, improvements and meaningful improvements.
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How long does it last?
The first dogs treated in the C-PRP pilot program have retained benefit for over one year and counting.
Do patients need more than one treatment?
There may be value in providing an additional treatment but this has not been studied yet. Researchers are currently evaluating the use of multiple treatments for dogs over the age of ten, a population that was less responsive to a single injection of the therapy in our pilot study.
What is involved in the procedure?
The animal is sedated or anesthetized, blood is drawn and filtered to trap the platelets, and then the platelets are recovered by reverse flow using a proprietary elution solution.
Thereafter, a needle is inserted in the affected joint, synovial fluid aspirated to confirm the location, and the therapy is administered until resistance in the joint is felt. The volume administered can range from one to five ml depending upon the dog, the joint, and the extent of disease. This procedure is done as an in-hospital day procedure.
How long does it take?
For an experienced clinician, the entire procedure typically takes 30 to 40 minutes. The component parts include sedation (5 minutes, anesthesia takes longer), blood draw (5 minutes), filtration and recovery (15 minutes) followed by location of the joint, aspiration and injection (5 minutes).
Is there a specific post treatment regiment?
Some vets ask their client owners to restrict the dogs to leash walking for the first day or two; thereafter, they can resume unrestricted behavior pleasing to the animal. Animals should not be forced to run for the first week or two.
How will the patient feel immediately after the treatment?
Some dogs have displayed discomfort that can be treated with ice for the first 20 minutes post-procedure. If needed, an oral analgesics may be used the first day or two after the treatment.
How long does it take to recover and see a benefit?
Most owners report seeing benefits within the first few days. A handful of owners reported a mild to moderate relapse of symptoms approximately 2 weeks after treatment before seeing a sustained benefit from the treatment.
Platelet therapy is being used in people with advanced, non responsive osteoarthritis, with good results.
Definitely an option for you to consider - talk to your local vet.
Reference: Dr. Andrew Jones
Images: Dr. Andrew Jones
This article and information forms part of the Carole's Doggie World Holistic Library and is presented for informational purposes only.The information is not intended to be a substitute for visits to your local vet. Instead, the content offers the reader information researched and written by Carole Curtis for www.carolesdoggieworld.com