VEAZIE, Maine (NEWS CENTER) - We recently did a story about a fairly new procedure some veterinarians are using on animals, called Stem Cell Therapy. Not everyone is sold on the procedure though.
The way it works, is vets remove the stem cells from the animal's fatty tissue and re-inject them into the area that needs treatment. It takes about a day and experts who do it say it's less evasive than knee or hip replacement. Not everyone agrees though.
Dr. David Cloutier, from the Veazie Vet Clinic, has chosen not to perform Stem Cell Therapy on his patients. He says that it poses little risk of harm, but is a costly procedure that has yet to be supported by any peer review journals veterinarians commonly refer to.
"It's certainly going to make a lot of us skeptical and I need to see how that's really happening and see how you're providing that these cells can go off and do other things that we need them to do," said Cloutier.
Foxcroft Veterinary Services in Dover Foxcroft, Coastal Cat and Feline in York and the Yarmouth Veterinary Center already offer this type of one-day stem cell treatment. Cloutier expects it to take around 5 to 10 years before we see if the procedure goes mainstream.
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Stem cell research with animals causes controversy