Panama City Beach, Fla:

A Group of Bay County veterinarians are proving that old dogs can feel like pups again.

The Animal Care Center in Panama City Beach is the first clinic in Florida to perform in-house Animal Stem Cell Regenerative Therapy.

Two dogs are making history in Florida: 7-year old Hummer is suffering from hip dysplasia and 11-year old Rascal has osteoarthritis.
“We have some interesting memories, when he was a year or two, he swallowed a golf ball,” explained Hummer’s owner, Barbara Stokesbary.

Stokesbary is bringing her Yellow Labrador Retriever back to the veterinarian. No, not because he digested sports equipment, but because he’s one of the first patients in Florida taking part in Animal Stem Cell Regenerative Therapy. The procedure targets pets suffering from degenerative diseases.
Dr. Mike Hutchinson represents MediVet America, the pet supplier for the procedure.
Hutchinson came to Panama City Beach to instruct local veterinarians how the stem cell process works.

“I can use the body’s repair system, its own regenerative repair system to repair disease. These cells are already sitting in our fat, we are taking them out of the patient, out of the dog, processing them two or three hours, injecting them right back into the same patient. We take their stem cells and put them right back into them,” Hutchinson said.

“It is amazing because the other options for hip dysplasia are hip replacement, which is thousands and thousands of dollars and a lot of recovery, which is something we would never be able to do, so this is affordable,” Stokesbary said.

This stem cell procedure is different from what comes to mind for many people.
“There are no ethical or moral issues, we are not using embryos we are using repair cells that are in the dog,” Hutchinson said.

The entire process from start to finish takes about three to four hours and the patients can be in an out within one day. The stem cell procedure is only being done in five states, including Florida and costs about 1,800 dollars.