Dogsey

A dog who helped with the 9/11 rescue work has received stem cell therapy, a procedure which will help relieve pain from debilitating arthritis in an elbow and improve the quality of her life.

Bailey, a 14-year-old black Labrador retriever from Tennessee, was trained in live search work. With her owner Keith Lindley, who was then a firefighter, she helped with rescue work after the attack on the Pentagon on 11 September 2001. Although she didn't find anyone, Bailey went on to serve as a therapy dog for human rescue workers. Mr Lindley and Bailey were also on standby at Salt Lake City for the Winter Olympics in 2002 in case of an emergency.

The treatment, costing around $1800, was donated by its Kentucky-based developers, MediVet America and carried out at Companion Animal Hospital in Goodlettsville. Katherine Wilkie, director of lab services for MediVet America said: “Bailey deserves this after care for helping everyone and serving her country”. She explained that good results are usually seen with the treatment and in Bailey's case, the elbow problem was being dealt with “at the source”, rather than being masked by drugs.

The procedure involved obtaining stem cells from Bailey's fat tissue and injecting the cells into her elbow joint to promote the growth of new cartilage. Improvement is expected within two weeks.