Gfitz911
New member
I have taken FOREVER to write this post because it was very painful to go through. Howver, I feel like others need to be aware of the potential problems that we experienced. This is going to be long, so bear with me...
Around Christmas time, Koozer had his TPLO surgery to fix a torn ACL on his rear left leg. We opted for the stem cell therapy as well. The surgery and first stem cell dose went perfect! It was a rough first few weeks as the major healing was being done, but our little boy took it like a champ! I was rather surprised that he was walking (and allowed to walk) the first day home! The SEVERE restrictions are a must follow after the surgery. Bottom line, the surgery went perfect, and Koozer is now 100% back to being the crazy playful boy that he is.
The problem was the stem cell therapy. At about 8 weeks post surgery, we took Koozer in for another round of Stem Cell therapy. We dropped him off at our vets office, and picked him up later that day. The vet (a great bulldog vet) told us that he might be a little sore, but should be good to go in a few days. Koozer walked from the vet's office, to our car, and into the house, no problem. That night, as Koozer went for his goodnight potty, we noticed he really wasn't putting pressure on that back leg. The next morning, we noticed Koozer couldn't walk at all! He was paralyzed from the waist down!!!! We immediately called our vet but he was in surgery. We videotaped us trying to get Koozer outside to potty without the use of his legs, to show our vet. Our vet finally called us, and told us he had no idea what was wrong. The stem cells are Koozer's so there shouldn't be a problem there. The injection was done directly in the knee joint, so why the paralysis? He contacted some other vets who do the stem cell therapy too, because he said this shouldn't have caused any issues. One vet came back with a response that he sees this in about 1/200 cases. It was just a severe inflammation response and very rare, but it would clear up in a day or so. And sure enough, the next morning, Koozer woke up and started walking, though a bit shaky. It took about three days to fully resolve.
In summary, if you are thinking of getting the TPLO surgery, we had a good experience and it allowed our boy to have his childhood back. As crazy as it was, I would also recommend the stem cell therapy. I am convinced it helped Koozer recover faster than he normally would. I think we just had some really bad luck with being the weird bulldog that has a reaction. I would do it again if I could.
I have included the video (very scary) of Koozer unable to walk after stem cell dose. The other video is a day later when he started to walk again. Hope this helps someone in the future!
Around Christmas time, Koozer had his TPLO surgery to fix a torn ACL on his rear left leg. We opted for the stem cell therapy as well. The surgery and first stem cell dose went perfect! It was a rough first few weeks as the major healing was being done, but our little boy took it like a champ! I was rather surprised that he was walking (and allowed to walk) the first day home! The SEVERE restrictions are a must follow after the surgery. Bottom line, the surgery went perfect, and Koozer is now 100% back to being the crazy playful boy that he is.
The problem was the stem cell therapy. At about 8 weeks post surgery, we took Koozer in for another round of Stem Cell therapy. We dropped him off at our vets office, and picked him up later that day. The vet (a great bulldog vet) told us that he might be a little sore, but should be good to go in a few days. Koozer walked from the vet's office, to our car, and into the house, no problem. That night, as Koozer went for his goodnight potty, we noticed he really wasn't putting pressure on that back leg. The next morning, we noticed Koozer couldn't walk at all! He was paralyzed from the waist down!!!! We immediately called our vet but he was in surgery. We videotaped us trying to get Koozer outside to potty without the use of his legs, to show our vet. Our vet finally called us, and told us he had no idea what was wrong. The stem cells are Koozer's so there shouldn't be a problem there. The injection was done directly in the knee joint, so why the paralysis? He contacted some other vets who do the stem cell therapy too, because he said this shouldn't have caused any issues. One vet came back with a response that he sees this in about 1/200 cases. It was just a severe inflammation response and very rare, but it would clear up in a day or so. And sure enough, the next morning, Koozer woke up and started walking, though a bit shaky. It took about three days to fully resolve.
In summary, if you are thinking of getting the TPLO surgery, we had a good experience and it allowed our boy to have his childhood back. As crazy as it was, I would also recommend the stem cell therapy. I am convinced it helped Koozer recover faster than he normally would. I think we just had some really bad luck with being the weird bulldog that has a reaction. I would do it again if I could.
I have included the video (very scary) of Koozer unable to walk after stem cell dose. The other video is a day later when he started to walk again. Hope this helps someone in the future!