Bareilly: Dog owners from across the country, including Delhi and Gujarat, are turning up with their paralytic pets at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) here for stem cell therapy. Scientists treat a paralyzed dog by transplanting stem cells from healthy dogs. IVRI is the second institute in the country to offer this treatment, after Madras Veterinary College, Chennai.

According to scientists, no research has been conducted to determine the number of dogs who suffer from paralysis every year in India. However, the institute receives at least four cases every week of spinal trauma which causes paralysis in dogs. IVRI recorded 143 cases of posterior paralysis in 2016. These were treated with stem cell therapy and medicines.

If dogs are treated only with medicines, recovery is witnessed only in a few cases, said Amarpal (who goes by his first name), head and principal scientist, division of surgery, IVRI. On an average, 17% recovery rate was noted among dogs administered only medicines.

However, the best response was recorded among severely affected dogs when they were treated using stem cells, where almost all the patients responded to treatment to variable extent, said the scientist. Though we have cases where recovery was 100%, the average recovery rate is about 50%. The experiment proved the efficacy of stem cell therapy in cases of paralysis due to spinal trauma, said Amarpal.

The paralytic dog is first administered anesthesia before the stem cells are injected into its spinal cord. It takes only one session for a dog to undergo the therapy and it is discharged the same day.. After this, the owner has to bring his pet for check-ups for two or more times so that vets can monitor how the animal is responding to the treatment and if it is suffering from any reaction, said Amarpal.

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Stem cell therapy to treat paralytic dogs draws pet owners from across country to IVRI - Times of India