Vet nurse Sharon Wallis proffered her pet, Daphne, as the Gardens Veterinary Clinic's demonstration animal on Thursday.
Tauranga-based StemVet New Zealand co-director Gil Sinclair showed staff the procedure at the clinic's new on-site laboratory, which would create the live stem cells from the animals' own tissues. It could be offered to dogs, cats, and horses.
Still groggy from anaesthetic from her first procedure to extract the stem cell ingredients, Daphne was put under again a few hours later to have the live cells injected into her affected knee, both hips, and intravenously.
The procedure uses an extract of the animal's fat tissue, mixed with an extract from its blood platelets, bringing dormant stem cells to life.
Ms Wallis said Daphne had osteoarthritis in her back left knee, making exercise difficult and painful.
She hoped Daphne would be among the 80% of animals which experienced improvement through the procedure.
Mr Sinclair said that in about 40% of cases, the effect was dramatic. Animals crippled with osteoarthritis or injury gained a new lease on life.
A great joy was seeing some animals bounding in a few days after a procedure for stitches removal, Mr Sinclair said.
At $2500 the cost was similar to a year of anti-inflammatory drugs.
StemVet New Zealand launched in November, and had 10 clinics either set up or in establishment.
Clinic owner, vet Russell Brown, was excited by the possibilities of the new system and the hope it offered owners of arthritic pets.
He believed Daphne was the first animal in Dunedin to have a stem cell procedure.
He hoped his new on-site equipment and lab staff could be utilised by other vet clinics, which could extract the raw material for processing at the Gardens clinic.
In time, the clinic would employ a specialist lab technician for the most time-consuming part of the process, the creation of the stem cells.
Stem cells were viable for about 30 hours once they had been activated.
