Acti-Stem Cell Therapy & Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy

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At the end of 2019, the beginning of 2020 introduces a revolutionary new Regenerative Medicine Program at Highland Veterinary Clinic. We are proud to employ certified technicians and veterinarians who can offer in-clinic, same day activated stem cell therapy to our patients who would benefit from this progressive medical therapy.

What Are Stem Cells?

Stem cells are the body’s repair cells. Stem cells “know how to divide and become” cellular tissues such as skin, fat, muscle, bone, cartilage, and nerve to name a few. The goal of this revolutionary procedure is to provide a potent anti-inflammatory effect promoting cartilage and other tissue regeneration ultimately creating a healthier environment for the affected area. Most importantly, it’s an all-natural approach to healing without the adverse side effects. One example, in the case of arthritis, stem cells can become new cartilage cells, thus reducing pain and increasing mobility.

How Can a Pet Benefit from Stem Cell Therapy?

Our vet family techs and practitioners at Highland Vet Clinic always ask: if this were my best friend—what kind of therapies are within reach which will enrich our lives together? How can I improve my pet’s quality of life? Stem cells treat the source of the pet patient’s medical problem by becoming new tissue and replacing damaged tissue. Other treatments, such as NSAIDs, can only attempt to reduce symptoms present with chronic inflammatory diseases. Our activated stem cell treatment is very low risk because it uses your pet’s own stem cells! With MediVet’s technology in a recent study conducted by four independent Veterinarians over 95% of animals treated show improvement. For pet owners, there are four main advantages to MediVet’s regenerative medicine program at Highland Veterinary Clinic:

1.) The cellular processing is all done in our office, so no worry about losing or damaging the sample during shipment.

2.) MediVet allows Gregg J. Gormley, DVM and any of our future certified vets to complete the entire procedure in one day, making it very convenient for you and your pet. While all companies are equally safe, MediVet has the highest reported success rate (>95%). When comparing side by side, we chose MediVet because of the superiority in technology and on-site training with support.

3.) Harvesting your pet’s stem cells from adipose tissue (fat) is less invasive and provides higher stem cell yields.

4.) You can choose to have your pet’s stem cells banked in cryo-storage! If your pet needs treatment again (the benefits of an average osteoarthritis treatment reportedly lasts18-24 months), MediVet can retrieve your pet’s stem cells and send them for future treatments—no more minor surgery to harvest adipose tissue.

What Conditions Can We Treat With Stem Cells?

Our typical stem-cell patient has

• Osteoarthritis (hip dysplasia, degenerative joint disease, calcifications, common degeneration, and inflammation)

• Soft tissue injuries (cruciate injuries, tears, ruptures, inflammation), or

• Needs accelerated healing of fractures.

We know a lot about these conditions, and over 95% of these patients get better, with MediVet’s Stem Cell Therapy. Stem cell therapy can be used alone or in conjunction with surgical repair.

MediVet may provide us with the resources to treat other cases on a “compassionate use” basis. There is less known about these conditions, but clinics and MediVet are gathering data AND seeing some exciting results. Some of those conditions are:

• Degenerative Myelopathy & Spinal Trauma

• Feline Chronic Gingivitis

• End-stage Renal Disease,

• Liver and Kidney Failure

• Skin Disease: Allergies and Atopy

• Auto-Immune Issues and IMHA

• Inflammatory Bowel Disease

• Pulmonary Fibrosis

Please talk to us if you have questions about any of these conditions or would like to submit your pet’s case for what is called “a compassionate use trial.” Think of these treatments as off-label use for the Stem Cell therapies that we perform at Highland Veterinary Clinic.

Stem Cells from Adipose Tissue (fat) Provides Safer, Ethically Sourced Cells

Historically there are two types of stem cells which are known—Embryonic and Somatic.

Embryonic stem cells are found in the embryo. These cells are called totipotent or pluripotent, which means they can reproduce into any mature cell type. While embryonic stem cells were once thought to offer the greatest potential in differentiating into any mature cell type, there are obviously moral and ethical concerns with harvesting these cells. They also have a propensity to develop into teratomas, a type of tumor, which is a major safety concern.

The second type of stem cell is the adult stem cell. These stem cells are multipotent, which means they can still differentiate into multiple different tissues, but unlike embryonic stem cells, they do not develop into teratomas. Due to this, adult stem cells have a major safety advantage over embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells are found in organs and tissues, such as bone marrow, adipose tissue (fat), skin, liver, blood vessels, and neurons. There are no moral or ethical concerns with harvesting adult stem cells from a patient, activating them through MediVet’s exclusive Acti-stem technology, and reintroducing them back into the patient.

Adult stem cells are highly concentrated in adipose tissue (fat). Fat is also readily available in large quantities and easily accessible. The technique to acquire the stem cell is less invasive and less painful than aspirating a bone marrow sample from the hip or the sternum. There are up to 1,000 times more stem cells in a gram of fat than in a gram of bone marrow. At this concentration and with MediVet’s patented technology, the procedure provides an abundance of stem cells to treat in-clinic, same day, without the requirement and additional expense of an outside culturing facility.

How Invasive is the Stem Cell Harvesting Procedure? Is it Safe?

We perform a specialized blood test one week prior to stem cell therapy. This testing ensures that your patient does not have a cancerous condition or other conditions which would need to be addressed or treated prior to stem cell therapy, and ensures that your pet is healthy enough to undergo 30-40mins of anesthesia for collection and administration of the therapy. We are utilizing a brand new screen by VDI labs to also monitor the need and effectiveness of the therapy by screening your dog’s Vitamin D and Hylauronic Acid levels, or your Cat’s Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D levels. This will help with therapy and ensure the greatest most lasting success.

In dogs or cats, the extraction is less invasive than a spay and in horses, a standing lipo technique can be utilized.

First, we induce your pet under general anesthetic. Then, we will make a small incision and collect 2-4 tablespoons of fat (either in the belly or behind the shoulder blades). MediVet provides on-site training for each clinic that brings on Stem Cell treatments; the process ensures your pet’s cells will be isolated and activated with the same-day advantage in a proper manner.

The fat is collected in about 20 minutes. Processing the sample is done carefully by one of HVC’s highly trained Vet techs certified after careful training by MediVet. In the thousands of animals treated, MediVet has not observed any significant negative side-effects from MediVet’s in-clinic activated stem cell therapy.

The surgical time requiring anesthesia is typically less than 30 minutes. The cells are isolated, activated and re-administered on site so that your companion animal can go home the same day.

An absorbable bio-sponge is placed inside to prevent bruising and fluid accumulation. Most patients will not even have sutures or staples to remove.

Most pet owners choose to bank their pet’s remaining stem cells in the MediVet Kentucky Cryo-storage unit. This means that surgery won’t be required for these patients in the future should they need further treatments!

What is the Recovery Period? How Long Until We See Results?

We recommend that the patient be limited to activity within the first 10 days. It is likely your pet will be feeling good and want to exert themselves, however, we recommend limiting physical activity so the cells have the ability to work to repair injuries. Improvements are typically seen within the first two weeks and continually improve over the next few months. Veterinarians report responses from initial treatments lasting 18-24 months!


Learn More

What is Platelet Rich Plasma?

Platelet-Rich Plasma, or PRP, is blood plasma that contains concentrated amounts of platelets and growth factors. PRP is a non-surgical and advanced means of providing high doses of the body’s own healing factors directly to the area where they are needed. Platelet Rich Plasma is a trending topic in human sports orthopedic medicine. Used for sports injuries as many wears and tear issues. MediVet’s Platelet Rich Plasma Kit, or PRP, is a breakthrough product for pets utilizing blood plasma with concentrated platelets that once activated, accelerate the healing properties of the isolated growth factors at a fraction of the cost of traditional treatments.

How Does Platelet Rich Plasma Benefit Pets?

Platelets that are found in whole blood contain many healing growth factors and bioactive proteins. These bioactive proteins can initiate tissue healing, and assist with inflammation. The treatment offers an affordable all-natural alternative to drugs and steroids.

Medivet’s PRP Kit can be introduced topically in or around an injured joint, tendon, or used in its gel form to treat large burns or wounds. Our PRP is not limited to acute injuries, it can also be used for chronic conditions.

• Osteoarthritis

• Tenosynovitis

• Wound Care

• General Inflammation

• Post Surgical Healing

​​​​​​​How Long Has Regenerative Medicine Been Available?

Stem cell therapy for animals has been commercially available since 2004. MediVet pioneered in-clinic treatment options around 2010 and has now successfully treated thousands of animals globe.

Are These Procedures Covered By Pet Insurance?

This procedure is covered by Trupanion’s 80/20 plan and one or more of PetPlan’s pet insurance programs. Contact your pet insurance company today to see if they will cover.

Can I Bank My Pet’s Stem Cells Before They Are Ill/Injured?

Absolutely! As a service for our progressive animal owners and veterinarians, MediVet Biologics incorporated a Spay & Neuter or surgical banking option in 2012 where the company can bank cells for healthy patients in wellness and preventative format.

This service requires no processing for the clinic, and simply utilizes shipping services for processing of the tissue. Much like parents do for their children by banking umbilical cord blood, pet owners can now bank their pet’s adipose (fat) stem cells. More and more pet owners are choosing to harvest fat at the time of a standard spay or neuter procedure, in order to bank stem cells for the future. Banking your young pet’s cells is the best insurance you can have for the rapidly growing list of diseases being helped by stem cell therapy.

With MediVet’s Bank Now Save Later program you can ensure that your pet receives the most advanced care available when it's needed. By banking your pet’s stem cells today you will be able to take advantage of current treatments and the endless possibilities of stem cell therapy in the future.

MediVet’s program aims to make the choice and investment an easy decision for owners. Collecting stem cells during an already elected spay or neuter on a young animal not only leads to financial savings in the long run, but also reduces the time and surgical procedure (even though it’s minimally invasive) time that your pet would undergo when he or she needs stem cells, and maximizes the vitality, effectiveness and increased cell yields. This opens the potential means for life-changing preventative care in the future.

It's obvious that many dogs and cats suffer from diseases and ailments, as they grow older. The banked cells have a history of extremely high yields with MediVet’s lab.