Just for those who are considering it.  They collect the fat from the dog's stomach , this is the worst part of the procedure.  It is like major surgery stitches long recovery etc...  the stem cell implantation is easy it is just through injection.  for Dobies with Cardio there are some banked cells they are using so the dog doesn't have to go throught the collection procedure. But the dog must be compatible with the cells or rejection will occur.  Tha's why it is best to bank your own.

http://www.mzjf.com/dmdonation.htm

The Future of DM Research

Breaking DM News!!!!

News Archive*** Dr Clemmons' New Research ***

Dr Clemmons needs subjects upon which to try a peptide that he feels will help German Shepherd Dogs with Degenerative Myelopathy. These subjects must be limited to German Shepherds, at this point. He can accommodate about 6 German Shepherds in this program.

From Dr Clemmons:

It does no harm but to document it I need to see the patients twice in beginning and in 3 months. Then they get IM injections twice a week.. Yes, we do need to be sure we are treating the right problem so we might want to run the DM Flash test and then we need to do an EMG which will require a short anesthesia which we can probably do with propofol and acepromazine. This will let us use the resistance to fatigue on nerve stimulation and the spinal evoked potential to follow the cases. We can cover the costs of those tests and provide peptide that their vet can administer until we repeat the tests. We would want some short videos weekly so we can track. This will give them access for our exam for free, but we can't pay for any extras. We are pretty sure it will do no harm...since we are using it in other patients, but there is the IM injections to give it. We can't pay to have their vets give injection, but we can ask them to do it gratis. Email me if interested, at rmc@neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu

I am posting this in case anyone has a German Shepherd Dog with DM, who is able to get to the Gainesville, Florida area, and wishes to participate in this research. 

LynOD, Renovocyte only requires a punch biopsy, the size of 3-4 mm and it is done on the neck or back area.

Hunger4justice, If I wasn't going forward with the stem cell therapy I would definitely try to get my girl into this study. I doubt they will allow her in the study if she iss also getting the stem cell therapy because the results would be inconclusive.  

Thank you so much Abby. Biopsy was taken this morning. The vet shaved about a 5” patch on Shelby’s neck just above the collar area and took two samples. Shelby has about 6 stitches total. They did it under local anesthesia and it went very smoothly. I dropped the biopsy off for shipment….now we wait for about two weeks for the stem cells to processed and expanded. The cells will be shipped in an IV solution and infused by my vet. Renovocyte would like for the vets to start injecting the stem cells directly into the spinal column, but that requires general anesthesia which can be detrimental to a DM dog, therefore I have opted not to do that and the vet agrees.  I will definitely keep everyone posted.
Char

I have actually commented on past Stem cell threads, but they seem to no longer be searchable. 

I personally had done quite a bit of informal research over the last few years talking to equine vets that have been doing this on race horses much longer than we have seen recently for dogs.  The consenus was that it works for Arthritis in dogs and horses, But...As Abby Normal said: 

The cells that they collect for treatment of joint disease are taken from fat do not act in the way we associate with conventional stem cell therapy, ie they do not take on the characteristics of the damaged area of the body and replicate and repair the damage. They are stem cells, but from fat, and in the case of arthritis they are injected into the joint and they do provide temporary relief by migrating into the joint and providing a cushion, thus for some dogs benefit is seen. However, it is said that the effect lasts only from 3 - 6 months approx when it does provide a benefit at all.

The above is why people are seeing results from stem cell injections, but nothing significant.  The stem cells are performing in a similar fashion to the Adequan injections.  My regular vet had a some vet-stem reps come by his office a few times and he made the same conclusion years ago.  I personally believe the above to be an accurate statement.

The real breakthough will be with bone marow stem cells, but only universities are doing this (possibly race horses too, but quietly and certainly not publicly).  I'll bet something like this could be arranged to be done successfully in Asia today (China or South Korea), a person just needs the proper amount of $$$ while asking the right folks.