Stem Cell Therapy FAQ

Stem cells are powerful healing cells in your body that can become other types of cells. There are many adult stem cells in fat tissue, however they are asleep. MediVet’s stem cell therapy allows your vet to isolate stem cells from an animal’s own fat tissue, wake them up, and re-introduce the healing cells into the areas of need.

Stem cells treat the source of the problem by offering the ability to become new tissue to replace damaged tissue. Other treatments, such as NSAIDs, merely attempt to reduce symptoms. The treatment is very low risk, because it uses the animal’s own stem cells. It offers an all-natural alternative to drugs and steroids. In a recent randomized sampling of 155 canines sufferings from osteoarthritis >95% showed improvements as reported by the treating Veterinarians. 

Stem cell therapy for animals has been commercially available since 2004. MediVet was the pioneer in offering to the Veterinarian industry same day, onsite treatments and has to date completed over 10,000 treatments globally.

For pet owners, there are two main advantages to MediVet. First, the processing is all done in your vet’s office. This eliminates variability in outside shipping of the sample as well as offers a fresh is best approach to isolating, activating and re-administering your animals living cells back to the areas of need. The MediVet process has been independently validated in a blinded university medical setting.

MediVet has a patented technology in which your animal’s stem cells will be activated with Platelet Rich Plasma (from a blood sample) and photobiostimulation (light).This dual activation process provides an increase in metabolic rate thus giving the cells the highest potential to survive once placed in the environment (your animal) and potential repair.

Yes, this procedure is very safe. On a typical dog, this is easier than a spay, and the fat is collected in about 15 minutes by your vet. Processing the sample is done carefully by a highly trained MediVet representative (or by a lab tech carefully trained by that representative). In the thousands of animals treated, we have not observed any negative side-effects from MediVet’s stem cell therapy.

First, your vet will put your pet under general anesthetic. Then, he/she will make a small incision and collect 2-4 tablespoons of fat (either in the belly or behind the shoulder blades). Then a trained technician will process the sample, right in the clinic, using MediVet equipment. The sample is activated then introduced to the patient.  The patient can then go home, same day.

We recommend that the patient be kept quiet for the first 10 days. Then, while they may feel a lot better, you will need to be careful so your pet doesn’t injure themselves until they build up some of their muscles. Swimming and walking in water is great therapy. We typically see improvement starting after 3 weeks, and then continuing up to around 2 months.

Our typical 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. If your animal is suffering from something different such as Atopic Dermatitis, Inflammatory Bowel Disease etc. your Vet will consult a team in order to consider stem cell as a treatment option compassionately.

We typically see about 1-4 years of relief after the initial treatment. Most pet owners chose to bank cells, so retreatment is easy. MediVet has a banking facility in Kentucky. If symptoms return, your vet merely requests a dose of cells from the bank, and re-introduces the cells. No surgery is necessary.

It is MediVet’s policy to bring its customers the latest data and provide recommendations for the safety of all patients. Currently, MediVet recommends that no animals with malignant cancer be treated with ADSCs