HOUSTON (FOX 26) -
FOX 26 News often follows patients through surgery to bring attention to the latest state-of-the-art procedures available in the Houston area. There was an unusual and exciting twist for one assignment -- one of the patients was orange with black stripes! That is because the "patients" were a Malayan tiger and a black jaguar from The Houston Zoo. Visitors may have seen them there before. They are both getting older and starting to suffer from arthritic pain, just like humans do.
Dr. Maud Merid performs many surgical procedures on the zoo animals, but she says these were complicated cases and medically advanced, so the zoo called in the help of Gulf Coast Veterinary Services and InGeneron, Inc. (for stem cell treatment).
"The plan is to harvest fat from the abdomen, while they're processing that, they'll extract the stem cells from fat. Then, while InGeneron is doing that, the plan is to position him for the arthroscopy, slide a scope in the joint and find a cause for his arthritis and then hopefully we'll treat it through the scope as well," explained Dr. Brian Beale from GCVC.
The cats underwent the procedures at the same time in neighboring operating rooms. The hope is that the cat's own stem cells will help them heal faster and make their results last longer.
While it would probably take two months for them to fully heal from the surgery, veterinarians are hopeful it will only take two weeks with this new procedure. After shaving the cats in the surgical area, Dr. Beale removed fat from the lean cat's belly.
"Once the fat is removed, we'll cut into small pieces. This helps our enzyme mix gently remove the cells from the fat tissue," explains Carl Friddle with InGeneron, Inc.
Dr. Beale showed FOX 26 the degeneration in Pandu's elbow. In some areas, it was bone on bone.
"This is by far the largest fragment I've ever seen with this condition," said Dr. Beale, who often performs this same procedure on house cats and dogs.
Soon, Pandu's stem cells were separated and ready to get injected into the area that once caused him so much pain.
"We aspirate to make sure we're in the joint, and then we just inject," said Dr. Beale. In seconds, the procedure wraps up. Both cats will be allowed to heal on their own time and away from the popular crowds at the zoo. They will be back on display for you to enjoy soon, though.
For anyone with an aging pet, the folks at InGeneron, Inc. told FOX 26 a dog or cat can also have a similar procedure that would cost almost the same as a year's worth of arthritis medication for a pet.
On the Web:
The Houston Zoo -- http://www.houstonzoo.com/
InGeneron, Inc. -- http://www.ingeneron.com/
Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists -- http://www.gcvs.com/
