Kumba gets his second wind following stem cell therapy

QUESTION: Whatever happened to Kumba, the 13-year-old Rottweiler/ Labrador mix who underwent one of the state’s first in-clinic stem cell treatment surgeries in June at Surf Paws in Hawaii Kai to relieve severe arthritis in his hips?

ANSWER: While Kumba hasn’t gone back to his puppy days, his owner said he is much more active and playful than before receiving stem cell therapy.

“He is an older dog,” said Rumi Hospodar of Kailua. “But for him to be able to move around much more comfortably, do more things more actively — that’s what we’re happy about.”

“Where he has come over the past two months — it’s something we never thought would happen,” she said.

Since his treatment, Kumba has been taking longer walks, playing more with her three kids and jumping up abruptly to bark at birds, Hospodar said.

In the year leading up to his surgery, she said his arthritis had worsened so much that he was resigned to living a sedentary life. “He would be on the ground lying down most of the day,” she said. “It was almost like a task for him to get up and eat dinner sometimes, too.”

Surf Paws was the first Hawaii clinic to perform the outpatient treatment — which extracts an animal’s fat cells in a quick procedure, separates them from stem cells, and injects the stem cells into the affected area — completely in-house.

Before, veterinarians would have to ship the fat sample to Kentucky for processing, said Carole Spangler Vaughn, a Hawaii representative for MediVet, which assists clinics with administering the therapy.

Vaughn said the in-clinic procedure was first implemented on the mainland in 2009.

Dr. Cristina Miliaresis, who performed Kumba’s surgery at Surf Paws in June, said she has completed stem cell therapy on roughly 25 other dogs and one cat. Miliaresis said stem cell therapy is great for older animals that aren’t orthopedic surgery candidates because it is relatively nonevasive and doesn’t cause pain in the area where the fat is removed.

At a cost of between $2,400 and $2,800, the surgery is not cheap. Hospodar told the Star-Advertiser in June that her family decided to forgo a vacation to pay for Kumba’s procedure.

Hospodar said her family started noticing a difference in Kumba’s condition just seven days after his therapy.

“It’s actually almost like going back to what it was before,” she said.

Kumba’s newfound freedom has even gotten him into trouble, Hospodar added. He injured his paw two weeks ago while the family was not home because, his owner thinks, he got too excited jumping around and barking at birds.

“Fortunately it was something small, and we have a lot more years to look forward to,” she said.

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This update was written by Sarah Zoellick. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To…” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.