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GREENSBORO — Jake hadn’t uttered one cry in the months since he injured his back right leg, aggravating the arthritis in his knees.

The 8-year-old beagle mix also was a trooper on Tuesday afternoon, during a procedure to inject his own stem cells into his back legs. As veterinarian Christine Hunt poked and prodded his body, Jake snored.

The procedure took all of 10 minutes and will heal the partial tear in his right anterior cruciate ligament, allowing Jake to walk and run around free of pain in a matter of weeks.

“He’s a tough boy,” said Hunt as she and clinic employee Jill Jacob gently rubbed Jake to lure him out of his anesthetic snooze.

University Animal Hospital is the first in the Piedmont Triad to perform the stem cell therapy using new technology which allows the procedure to be done completely in-house.

The therapy uses an animal’s own cells to heal arthritis and other inflammatory conditions, Hunt said.

Stem cells heal by regrowing, turning into ligaments, cartilage and bone in areas affected by pain and illness.

Hunt harvested fat tissue from Jake’s abdomen. The dormant stem cells were separated from the fat and activated during a two- to three-hour process before they were injected into Jake.

The procedure costs $1,800 to $3,000, depending on the size of the animal, the number of injections required and other factors, Hunt said.

With the stem cell therapy, Jake avoided a surgery that called for a three-month recovery period and a lifetime of medication to keep his pain in check.

“He might be on a small amount (of medication), but nothing like he would have been on before,” Hunt said.

Hunt’s colleague, veterinarian Catherine Markijohn, said it’s too early to make a fair assessment about whether the therapy is better for Jake than surgery.

But the benefits are obvious.

“He’ll still have some restricted activity, but he’s going to be much more comfortable,” said Markijohn, whose Pembroke Welsh corgi underwent the therapy a couple of weeks ago and is recovering well. “He’s not going to have an incision to deal with in his knee. Things like that.”

Jake was inside an invisible fence, engaging in one of a dog’s favorite pastimes — chasing a UPS truck — when he hurt his leg over the summer.

“He took off after it just maybe 10 or 20 feet, but just turned it the wrong way or something, I guess,” said Abigail Peoples, who adopted Jake nearly six years ago.

Peoples knew immediately something was wrong. Jake returned from his chase refusing to put his leg on the ground. She took him to his regular veterinarian, who said surgery was the only option.

But Peoples didn’t think she could keep the active Jake still for the three months it would take for him to recover. He hadn’t cried, but it had pained her to see how Jake had slowed down since his injury.

The dog who likes to chase cars from within his fence and go for walks was finding it hard to go up and down stairs, and even to get up when he had been down for a long time.

Peoples recalled Jake limping after she took him on a stroll. “It’s been really hard because I haven’t been able to take him on walks since he’s been injured,” she said.

As Peoples contemplated the best solution for Jake’s health, Hunt and her staff were being trained to provide stem cell therapy to dogs in her West Friendly Avenue clinic.

Stem cell therapy in animals is not new. But, previously, the processing of the cells had to be done at an outside lab, prolonging the procedure. A Kentucky company, MediVet-America, developed the technology that now allows veterinary clinics to do the processing on-site.

Jake should be running again in four to six weeks, but his legs won’t be the only body part where he notices improved strength.

He also was injected with platelet-rich plasma from his blood, and stem cells not injected in his legs were given to him intravenously, which could help heal Jake’s other ailments, including the chronic bronchial disease he has suffered from, Hunt said.

Peoples visited Jake late Tuesday afternoon, when he was still a little groggy. She’s optimistic about getting the old Jake back.

“It remains to be seen how successful the surgery itself is, but I have a good feeling about it,” Peoples said.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com