Dogs Are Awesome

The other day Chad and I watched this amazing news story about a Golden Retriever named Hunter who was transplanted with his own stem cells. He had hip dysplasia and arthritis and was having trouble walking, and instead of paying for a very expensive hip replacement for him, his family decided to try this relatively new procedure that was only about $2500. The vet removed a chunk of Hunter's fat from around his shoulder, then sent it off to a lab where it was put into a centrifuge so that the stem cells could be separated from the fat cells. The newly harvested stem cells were then injected directly into his hip socket, where these regenerative cells began healing his damaged hip. Within a couple weeks of the transplant, Hunter was already able to jump onto the bed, which he hadn't been able to do in months. About 70% of dogs (the procedure is also often used in horses) have significant improvement in their mobility within a month of their transplant, and since the stem cells are their own, there are no ethical issues and no possibilities of rejection.

You can read the whole amazing story here. Hopefully within the next couple of years the FDA will approve similar procedures for people, which could help with spinal cord injuries and other damaged organs. The possibilities are very exciting!

While I was searching for this story online, I came across another interesting story about another Golden Retriever. This amazing dog named Jake was the first canine participant of the annual Alcatraz Invitational, swimming the 1.2 miles from the island prison to the San Francisco shore. It's a great story which even includes a video of the super swimmer!