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Imagine watching your dog become crippled, with no relief from drugs or surgery.
That's what happened to one California pet owner.
Fortunately she found a life-saving treatment using the dog's own fat.
It's hard to believe seeing it now, but a couple of months ago Abby, a 6-year old shelty, could barely walk.
"we were talking about euthanizing her because she was in so much pain," said owner Vicky Rusconi.
Rusconi tried countless procedures to help her dog's debilitating arthritis, but nothing worked.
When a vet at the animal clinic where she works recommended injecting stem cells using Abby's own fat, she figured she had nothing to lose.
"I was skeptical to be honest, but I was willing to try anything," Rusconi said. "I think when you get to the point where it's either euthanize your dog or try a new procedure, you're willing to try it."
Since the first round worked so well, Abby is now undergoing a second round of stem cell injections using her own fat.
"The stem cells come from the fat sample from the abdomen, and they get as much stem cells out of that as they do from bone marrow," explained Dr. Gary Brown.
Hundreds of dogs who have osteoarthritis like Abby have undergone this procedure, and according to the company that developed the stem cell therapy, 80 percent showed improvement after the procedure.
It is still experimental and expensive.
"I would say $2,500 to $3,000 for the whole gamut initially at least. It is experimental and empirical too, but in twenty years from now, this is going to be huge. God knows what uses we're going to use for stem cells," said Dr. Brown.
Dr. Brown doesn't see any controversy with using stem cells.
"This is taken from the own dog and it's treating its own disease, so there's no problem there, it's not like a jurassic park thing where you take some embryonic stem cells and go and create a new human," he said.
For Vicky, the risk and price is worth it to see that you really can teach an old dog new tricks.
Human clinical trials using this same type of stem cell technology are also underway for several diseases.
