Stem Cells for Basco
As of press time, a retired military dog named Basco was recovering from a stem cell procedure aimed at relieving osteoarthritis in his hip. Basco, a German Shepherd, did two tours of duty as a bomb-sniffing dog in Iraq. He was adopted in November by Debbie Richter of Medford, Oregon after being retired from active duty.
Richter noticed immediately after receiving her new companion that Basco seemed to be in pain. Her veterinarian confirmed that the ball of his femur was flattened where it met the hip. Normal mobility becomes more and more difficult for dogs in such condition, and the pain of moving around gradually deteriorates their quality of life.
After doing a thorough search for possible solutions to the problem, Richter decided to approach a company that had developed a fat-based stem cell procedure for joint and ligament problems in dogs and horses. The company, MediVet, donated the cost of the cutting-edge procedure – which normally runs around $2K – in honor of Basco’s service. If all went well, Basco’s bone would regenerate as a result of the stem cell implants. The common alternative, hip replacement surgery, is not generally considered ineffective for dogs of Basco’s age.
The procedure was performed on February 10 by Wendy Baltzer, an assistant professor of small animal surgery at Oregon State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. It generally takes about three weeks for an animal to recover from the surgery and return to his normal activities.
“I want this to cure his hip,” Richter said of the dog she calls a hero. “He deserves to be out of pain for all he’s done for his country.”
2011 Top Dog a Deerhound
The spectators at Madison Square Garden – who had paid as much as $155 each to attend – heartily approved when a five-year-old Scottish Deerhound named Hickory was named “Best in Show” at the Westminster Kennel Club’s annual contest, considered the most prestigious dog show in the country. Hickory reigned victorious over six other finalists, not to mention almost 2,600 other dogs representing 179 breeds from 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada who had been entered in the competition.
Famous bookmaker Johnny Avello predicted a Fox Terrier would take the prize. Not a bad guess, considering that terriers have won Best in Show at Westminster a total of 45 times. But Paolo Dondina, the contest’s first-ever Italian presiding judge, fell in love with Hickory, a sporting dog, the minute he appeared in the show ring.
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is the second-oldest continuous sporting event in the US, just a couple of years younger than the Kentucky Derby.
Scats and Dogs
The famed canine nose is being put to yet another interesting use, namely locating the scat (poop) of wildlife and thereby helping scientists understand the habits of wild animals. Thanks to the wonders of sniffer dogs and DNA testing, biologists now can learn from scat a great deal about population numbers, diet, and the roaming range of species, endangered and otherwise.
Sarah Reed, now of Colorado State University’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, did research with dogs while she was a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley several years ago and discovered that trained canines in the field could locate by smell more scat in a much broader area than a visual inspection by humans alone. The dogs were able to locate the scat of foxes, bobcats, and mountain lions from a distance of up to 80 feet.
Utilizing dogs and DNA testing, scientists no longer need to rely on less effective traditional methods of monitoring animal behavior in the wild, such as surveillance cameras or trapping and tagging.
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