cover image Medicine Dog: The Miraculous Cure That Healed My Best Friend and Saved My Life

Medicine Dog: The Miraculous Cure That Healed My Best Friend and Saved My Life

Julia Szabo. Lyons, $29.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7627-9644-1

Pet journalist Szabo describes her harrowing struggle with a perirectal fistula and her fight to get a controversial treatment already widely available to animals. When her pit bull Sam collapsed due to arthritis, Szabo learned of stem cell regeneration therapy in which the patient is injected with cells from their own tissue. The effects on Sam were miraculous, but the treatment was not yet FDA-approved for humans. Szabo details her self-education about her condition, and her unsuccessful trips to Panama and Madrid before finally receiving the treatment from the California Stem Cell Treatment Center. During this time, she also suffered romantically; an ever-growing pack of rescue dogs provided the unconditional love where humans failed. She tried alternative remedies and took some “health cues” from her dogs—the grain-free diet she fed her dogs led to her own “food-combining regimen,” which provided gastrointestinal relief. Szabo also differentiates adult stem cell treatment from embryonic in order to combat the former being “unfairly represented by the mainstream media.” She also provides examples of stem cell therapy success, including that of Texas Governor Rick Perry and New York Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon. While prone to narrative tangents, Szabo alerts readers to a cutting-edge medical procedure as well as the healing powers present in our canine friends. (Mar.)