2023_NorthStarVets_Pets_Digital_Issue

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REAL PETS, REAL PEOPLE Become Part of an Orthopedic Clinical Trial HELP YOUR PET AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE GREATER GOOD! Help your own pet—and contribute to research that could find cures and solutions for other animals, too—by getting involved in a veterinary clinical trial. A clinical trial is a research study that investigates whether a new medical treatment offers effective therapy for certain conditions—including whether the new treatment is better than the current standard therapy. Studies can help experts in the field find better ways to diagnose, prevent and treat diseases. When participating in a clinical trial, treatments are often available at a reduced cost. NorthStar VETS® is working with 12- 24 dogs for a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative surgical procedure called BFX Centerline®—a total hip replacement technique. North- Star VETS® Founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Daniel Stobie has successfully performed this procedure on eight dogs and is ready to study it further. Traditionally, a total hip replacement involves reaming the femoral canal and using implants that are impacted or cemented into the femur. While these procedures are successful, there is an increased risk of femur fracture with reaming. The new Centerline® total hip replacement system replaces the femoral head, and the implant is placed without reaming or the use of bone cement. It uses biological fixation (BFX), which is biologically compatible (minimizing adverse reactions), and encourages bone growth into the implant for stability. It also avoids complications related to the use of cement, such as loosening or infection. Participation in this study includes anesthesia, surgery, post-op rehabilitation, inpatient hospitalization, around-the-clock nursing care and routine follow-up visits. Another clinical trial in the works is studying surgery to correct canine patellar luxation, a common orthopedic condition in dogs affecting the knees, usually in smaller dog breeds. NorthStar VETS® is working with 12-24 small-breed dogs in this clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative surgical procedure called dome trochleoplasty which corrects canine patellar luxation. If you are interested in having your pet evaluated for participation in a study, or to learn more, call 609-259-8300 or email info@northstarvets.com. 8 NorthStarVETS ® .com
SUPPORT SYSTEM Veterinary oncologist Dr. Renee Alsarraf battled cancer at the same time as her boxer, Newton. Healing Power A MONTCLAIR ONCOLOGY VETERINARIAN REVEALS THE LESSONS SHE LEARNED ABOUT HER OWN CANCER DIAGNOSIS FROM THE DOGS SHE TREATED. PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF JOSEPH FRAZZ Montclair-based veterinary oncologist Dr. Renee Alsarraf has been in practice since 1991, treating pets with cancer. But when she was diagnosed with metastatic cancer herself in 2018, she realized how much her own patients could help her. In her book, Sit, Stay, Heal: What Dogs Can Teach Us About Living Well, Alsarraf writes about the dogs she has treated in her career and what she’s learned from them to help her on her own journey. Her own dog, Newton, was diagnosed with cancer only months after her own diagnosis. What made you want to become a veterinarian? I have wanted to be a veterinarian since age 7, and I have never wavered. But even looking back at photos of myself when I was a little younger, I always gravitated toward animals. I felt that not only did I understand them, but that they understood me, and they made me feel whole. They made me feel happy. You knew when you were a child what career path you wanted to follow? Yes, and people would try to talk me out of becoming a veterinarian. I would hear that it was easier to get into medical school than veterinary school, or a horrible one—that I would make more money as a human doctor. But I never wavered. It was really a calling. How did you end up specializing in veterinary oncology? Oddly, I have always been drawn to it. In part, I wondered if it was sort of a genetic thing, since my father was a human medical oncologist. I always thought perhaps there was a link there, except that he never brought his work home with him, meaning he never talked about it. Then, the summer after my sophomore year of veterinary school, I did an externship for six weeks in New York City at the Animal Medical Center. I applied for oncology. I was incredibly fortunate to get it. And that externship changed my life. I knew then that I wanted to treat cancer patients. Even though the topic seems so sad, and it is a very trying and draining job, I absolutely love it. It fills me right back up to be able to give a pet family another holiday or maybe a few more summers, and to really get to know that family. Which animals do you treat? I treat dogs, cats, birds, bunny rabbits, ferrets. They can all have cancer. You don’t really hear much about this, but even dinosaurs had a fair amount of cancer. They had a type of bone cancer called osteosarcoma. They also got leukemia. Cancer has truly been around since the dawn of time. I read that when you were at Michigan State, you organized a pet-loss support group. Can you talk about the loss people experience when they have a pet that dies? I’m not sure people realize how great that loss can be. Oh my gosh, not at all. I was a senior veterinary student following around a senior clinician, and I would see these families who were so sad (about their pets), and it wasn’t necessarily cancer. It could have been old age or kidney disease or heart disease. And they Pet Perspective 9
Page 1 and 2: YOUR TRUSTED SOURCE FOR KEEPING PET
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Page 23 and 24: GIFTS FOR PETS 6 The Name Game Hous
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Page 27 and 28: HAPPY HEALLTHY PETS To try and iden
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Page 33 and 34: NIBBLES & BITS FETCH PET BAKERY Mul
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