U.S. Marine German Shepherd Awarded Purple Heart-Gets Stem Cell Surgery

[Cicero]

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b56/Polythemus/Lex.jpg

Marine dog hurt in Iraq when handler killed to have surgery, hopefully continue new mission"

"The commemorative Purple Heart recipient is in his 70s - in people years. In dog years, he's pushing 10.

But Lex, a Marine Corps bomb-sniffing canine whose master died in the same 2007 attack in Iraq, is getting help with his war injuries. Like many retired veterans, he faces the challenge of aging while coping with health problems.
On Sunday, the German shepherd flew to Washington, D.C., where he will receive a specialized stem cell exchange surgery in hopes of rejuvenating his aging bones."

[Rolfe]

the German shepherd [....] will receive a specialized stem cell exchange surgery in hopes of rejuvenating his aging bones.


As a vet, all I can say is, WUT??? :jaw-dropp

Rolfe.

[Blogiston]

As a vet, all I can say is, WUT???

That's a coincidence, the dog's a vet too. You don't often see that.

[casebro]

Sounds like an experimental procedure on an animal with no other hope. Go for it, in the hopes that it will advance medical knowledge for the treatment of humans.

[Cicero]

As a vet, all I can say is, WUT??? :jaw-dropp

Rolfe.

Vets charge $5k+ for this procedure. Had the Adequan® injections not worked for my GSD's elbow injury, he was going to have had this procedure done.

[Blogiston]

Sounds like an experimental procedure on an animal with no other hope. Go for it, in the hopes that it will advance medical knowledge for the treatment of humans.

Hopefully, it will be canine derived stem cell material, and not human! I think it was Al Gore who warned against creating what he called, manbearpig, i.e. half man, half bear, half pig, by tampering with the DNA of a man, a bear and a pig.
I think, I'm not real sure.

[Rolfe]

Vets charge $5k+ for this procedure. Had the Adequan® injections not worked for my GSD's elbow injury, he was going to have had this procedure done.


It's not my speciality, but I have to say I've never heard of it. I don't even know if it's woo or not.

Rolfe.

[Beerina]

Sounds like an experimental procedure on an animal with no other hope. Go for it, in the hopes that it will advance medical knowledge for the treatment of humans.

That's exactly what I was thinking -- it's not a stupid waste of money, but an experiment for this kind of procedure. Not only do they have to prove the concept, but they have to hack out a reliable way for it to work.

[Rolfe]

Or it could be woo. It actually sounds very suspiciously woo-ish to me.

Rolfe.

[Drachasor]

Actually, stem cell treatments for dogs have been around for quite a while now and from what I understand they work fairly well. There wasn't any kind of freeze on the research like there was for humans, so it's continued to advanced.

[Cicero]

Or it could be woo. It actually sounds very suspiciously woo-ish to me.

Rolfe.

Don't know for sure as my GSD didn't undergo this procedure, but there is evidence of it being successful.

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2010/08/groundbreaking-dog-surgery-employs-stem-cell-therapy/

[Rolfe]

Don't know for sure as my GSD didn't undergo this procedure, but there is evidence of it being successful.

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2010/08/groundbreaking-dog-surgery-employs-stem-cell-therapy/


Oh dear.

When it comes to improving the lives of the animals he treats, veterinarian Brian Voynick isn’t afraid to try something new. He’s been doing acupuncture on dogs for some 15 years. So when Voynick first heard about stem cell therapy for small animals like cats and dogs four years ago at a conference on holistic veterinary medicine,


That's not research, that's woo-mongering of the first water.

Rolfe.

[Cicero]

Oh dear.




That's not research, that's woo-mongering of the first water.

Rolfe.

What does acupuncture have to do with stem cells derived from an animal’s fat to treat pain and inflammation from ailments like arthritis and hip dysplasia? Is the critter in on the woo?

[Rolfe]

Cicero, that page isn't describing basic, groundbreaking veterinary research. It's describing a woo vet who will try anything he hears about at a "holistic" veterinary conference. Holistic is code for "alternative" woo medicine.

Rolfe.

[Drachasor]

Cicero, that page isn't describing basic, groundbreaking veterinary research. It's describing a woo vet who will try anything he hears about at a "holistic" veterinary conference. Holistic is code for "alternative" woo medicine.

Rolfe.

I'll see if I can find something on stem cell research on dogs. My understanding was that it worked quite well.

For what it is worth, a guy who'll try things that don't work can also try things that do. He just doesn't distinguish between the two.

[Cicero]

Cicero, that page isn't describing basic, groundbreaking veterinary research. It's describing a woo vet who will try anything he hears about at a "holistic" veterinary conference. Holistic is code for "alternative" woo medicine.

Rolfe.

The page? As far as this thread is concerned, it was about one owner's account of their dog's stem cell operation.

Of course there are others:


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/10/15/con-vet-stem-cell.htm

Robert Harman, the privately held company's CEO and founder, is a veterinarian and former bio-tech executive who says veterinarians have used his company's procedure to treat more than 2,500 horses, including a number of world-class racehorses, and more than 200 dogs with arthritis and tendon and ligament injuries. "The animals return to their prior level of performance about 75 percent of the time," says Harman. "There's no question that this is working." Harman says the only adverse side effects have been swelling at the injection site in a small number of cases.

http://www.newsweek.com/2007/09/12/help-for-hounds.html

[Travis]

What good would stem cell therapy do for bones?

[Rolfe]

Let's see what the members who frequent the Science and Medicine forum area think of this.

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=193414

This isn't something you just "try out". This is something that would be the culmination of a huge body of cutting-edge research at the top universities. While it's not impossible this could have happened without getting on my radar, I'd be surprised, I have to say.

Rolfe.

[Rolfe]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/10/15/con-vet-stem-cell.htm

Robert Harman, the privately held company's CEO and founder, is a veterinarian and former bio-tech executive who says veterinarians have used his company's procedure to treat more than 2,500 horses, including a number of world-class racehorses, and more than 200 dogs with arthritis and tendon and ligament injuries. "The animals return to their prior level of performance about 75 percent of the time," says Harman. "There's no question that this is working." Harman says the only adverse side effects have been swelling at the injection site in a small number of cases.

http://www.newsweek.com/2007/09/12/help-for-hounds.html


The first link is broken for me. The second looks more promising, I agree, but the degree of commercialisation is still ringing alarm bells.

Rolfe.

[Alferd_Packer]

As a vet, all I can say is, WUT???


Sholdn't that be "WOOF?"

[Rolfe]

Actually, at the moment, and subject to revision with fuller information, it's "WOO".

Rolfe.

[Drachasor]

http://www.doggiestylish.com/store/2010/07/is-stem-cell-therapy-a-valid-treatment-for-dog-arthritis/

Best thing I could find going over it. From what it says, looks like it is most promising in horses. There's not a lot of research on this particular thing, it seems like.

[Rolfe]

Oh thanks, Drachasor. I'd started looking at the couple of publications by Harman about this, in a journal I don't recognise, and my woo-alert meter was firing on all cylinders. That blog post has done all the spade-work and has clearly identified the thing as a woo scam.

The only publications on the subject seem to be by the company that's marketing the treatment, there seem only to be two of them, and they appear in a low-impact journal with unclear peer-review procedures. (It looks similar to our Veterinary Times, which used to be Veterinary Drug, which contains some very good and interesting material but is also quite willing to publish unadulterated woo.)

The publications are 2007 and 2008. They are clinical trials, with no clear evidence of basic research leading to that point. In contrast a legitimate paper merely stating that adipose-derived stem cells seem to have potential in such therapy was published in September 2010.

None of this means that the treatment is unsafe or ineffective, obviously. It does mean its unproven and non-evidence-based. That it's being touted by acupuncture adherents at "holistic" conferences is a very bad sign. Not to mention the price ticket.

Following some more links, I found a short email discussion in my filed emails, initiated by Brennen Mackenzie, a member of a vets' email list I subscribe to. He has blogged on this very subject.

http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2010/06/vet-stems-stem-cell-therapy-and-chemaphors-oximunol-join-forces/
http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2010/06/stem-cell-therapy-still-an-uncontrolled-experiment-on-our-pets/

Brennen tends to give some benefit of the doubt, but what he has to say is very troubling.

the approach has significant biologic plausibility and some supportive in vitro and animal model evidence to suggest it may someday be a valuable clinical therapy. Unfortunately, the selling of it as a product for humans and, primarily via Vet Stem, for pets, is far out in front of the evidence that this hope will be borne out in the real world.

My concern is that such weak evidence, even added to the suggestive pre-clinical information and to study results from other species, does not justify selling an invasive and expensive medical procedure to pet owners.

I have little doubt that the promoters of these therapies believe they are safe and beneficial, and the current state of the evidence does not by any means show they are wrong. But the history of medicine makes it clear that such faith often turns out to be misplaced, and that shortcutting the process of vetting new therapies does more harm than good. We can only hope that does not turn out to be the case with these products.


$5,000 for an experimental procedure with no independent evidence of safety or efficacy, seems a bit steep. In my view this is simply blatant profiteering.

Rolfe.

[Beerina]

Oh dear.




That's not research, that's woo-mongering of the first water.

Rolfe.

Ahhh, I fear you may be right. I just stupidly assumed this was real science, if on the cutting edge of experimentation.

[Cicero]

I thought it was curious that the Pentagon would have waived the policy of not awarding medals to war dogs, but it turns out Lex's decoration was not official, but merely a commemorative presentation of a Purple Heart medal donated by an actual Purple Heart recipient.

The only time a war dog was officially awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart was in 1943 to Chips, a mixed breed GSD/husky/collie, who stormed a pillbox in Sicily and forced the surrender of its inhabitants. But because William Thomas, the then national commander of the of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, protested to FDR and the War Department that only humans can be awarded War Department decorations, Chips was forced to return his decorations.

[Drachasor]

I thought it was curious that the Pentagon would have waived the policy of not awarding medals to war dogs, but it turns out Lex's decoration was not official, but merely a commemorative presentation of a Purple Heart medal donated by an actual Purple Heart recipient.

The only time a war dog was officially awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart was in 1943 to Chips, a mixed breed GSD/husky/collie, who stormed a pillbox in Sicily and forced the surrender of its inhabitants. But because William Thomas, the then national commander of the of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, protested to FDR and the War Department that only humans can be awarded War Department decorations, Chips was forced to return his decorations.

That's crazy. The dog deserves a medal for that. Poor Chips. : (

[Cicero]

That's crazy. The dog deserves a medal for that. Poor Chips. : (

At least Chips actually was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart before some putz decided heroism is only recognized by the Pentagon when it is performed by man and not his best friend.