Dog & Cat Success Stories

9 year old Shar-Pei with arthritis in rear knees. We first noticed a problem and immediately took her in on 11/14/17. We thought she had cruciated her rear right leg. Dr. Hampel examined her and took x-rays of both rear knees and said it was arthritis. We asked her what could be done and she recommended stem cell and plasma injections. We decided to do the procedure at the end of March 2018 when Gracie was scheduled to go under for her teeth cleaning. In the meantime we put Gracie on Tramadol and Antinol. After a couple of weeks we were able to stop the Tramadol. Gracie went back in on 12/11/17 for her 4 month exam. We were heading to Cayucos for 3 weeks on January 1 and we wanted to make sure it would be OK for her to run. We made sure we had Tramadol in case Gracie showed any pain, but she flew up and down the beach several times a day without showing any indication of any pain or limp. In spite of this we knew it wouldn't last. Gracie went back in for the stem cell/plasma procedure on 3/29/18. 3 days later we noticed she was much better. It was amazing! For the next month we tried to keep her quiet and didn't let her run up and down stairs. In spite of our efforts Gracie wanted to jump on and off the couch and run around the house squeaking her toys. It is quite obvious that Gracie is very happy and is as active as she was when she was a puppy. Because of how she now behaves we know that this arthritis has been slowly affecting her over a year. Gracie went in on 7/30/18 for another one of her 4 month exams and Dr. Hampel said she could see a change. It has been almost 5 months since Gracie had her knee treatment and the difference is very obvious. We hadn't noticed she was having a problem because it was slowly happening little by little over a period of time. Now she is so much more active and happy like she used to be. When she goes to the bathroom she actually bends her hind legs rather that standing almost straight. She is racing around the house and having what we call her daft half hour. In 4 months Gracie will go back in for another exam and Dr. Hampel will decide if the knees need to be injected again or if we need to wait. Overall we are so happy with the results and so glad Dr. Hampel recommended the procedure.