Veterinary medicine may lag behind human medicine, but the range of surgeries available for animals is slowly increasing... whether spinal surgery, hip replacements, kidney transplants or heart valve replacements, it can be done. So I was really pleased to see that a total knee replacement has been pioneered in a cat. Impressive that they were able to create the joint in miniature.
I was lucky enough to be in practice when the cardiac surgeons were using dogs to practice heart valve surgeries, so many of our clients were able to get operations performed on their pets using heart lung machines... in fact, humans have a lot to thank dogs for as they pioneered the development of this. You can read more about it at :
http://www.pirweb.org/animal_dog.htm
It also says-
" Because dogs have a high incidence of kidney disease, they are a natural choice for this research. The first successful kidney transplant was performed in dogs in the late 1950's. Dogs currently aid research to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs.
Dogs have also made contributions to the study of aging. Like humans, aging dogs have skin that sags, eyes that lose vision and hair that turns gray.
Advances regarding aging have thus benefited dogs, making it possible for them to have long lives, many living well past the age of 15 years.
Artificial hips and joints for the handicapped, injured and aged were designed and tested in dogs. The most common treatment for human cataracts, the intraocular lens, was developed in dogs."
Is this why we call them "man's best friend? "
:)
