Veterinary Apheresis Service UK

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Veterinary Apheresis Service UK Veterinary Apheresis Service UK: A bespoke mobile apheresis service to serve the Veterinary Industry

VASUK

“Banking on your horses chance of optimised healing of tendon, ligament and joint injuries”

The idea of VAS UK came about when Chance X, a much loved and very successful grassroots event horse, sustained a potentially career ending stifle injury. Through a combination of careful diagnosis, arthroscopic surgery, intra articular medical and regenerative therapy, rehabilitation and physiothe

rapy - Chance X was able to return to his eventing career and provide ongoing success and happiness to his teenage rider and supporters. His owner, Jenny Walton http://linkedin.com/in/jen-walton-3b64a234 a veterinary surgeon herself, who has a long background in veterinary blood banking founded VAS UK whilst studying for her masters in lyophilized platelet use in dogs. Dr Anne Hale http://linkedin.com/in/anne-hale-27696146 veterinary surgeon, Jenny’s mentor and sponsor for the masters - provided 30yrs of expertise in veterinary apheresis, transfusion medicine and regenerative medicine to assist in developing the programme. An injection of platelet rich plasma (prp) was used in Chance’s therapy but Jenny and Anne felt that there was a way to improve how this was sourced and utilised, due to their knowledge of apheresis technology. The consideration that prp could also be stored as lysate if collected in appropriate quantities, allowed the idea of an individual horses “bank” of multiple regenerative injections to be collected during one event from that horse that could be used over the coming months/years. Apheresis allows the collection of an autologous, increased and more reliable concentration (compared to most low volume whole blood filtration and centrifugation methods), red cell white cell- reduced, aseptically prepared platelet product. In a 45min event around 200ml of PRP is collected from an individual horse. Post collection, a specially designed separation system developed by veterinary and human blood bankers (Innovative animal supplies - IAS) allows the sterile preparation of 15 aliquot doses of 10-25ml. Quantities can be tailored to the treating vets requirement. A prp injection can be used immediately intra-lesion (such as a tendon tear) or into the joint of an injured horse. The additional aliquots are frozen between -20/80°c for 2-5yrs depending on storage conditions and the injury being managed. Freezing results in the PRP becoming equine platelet lysate which contains the platelet proteome (content) which is considered beneficial in creating the healing environment that we look for in regenerative medicine. With injury injections in horses standardly being between 4-10ml, this process allows at least 15 separate treatments per horse.

VAS vêt Jenny finds herself at the other side of the needle this week.  Long term knee pain after a traumatic knee injur...
15/11/2024

VAS vêt Jenny finds herself at the other side of the needle this week. Long term knee pain after a traumatic knee injury in 2019. OA basically and much the same as some of our equine patients we’ve treated with prp. So we attended the stem cell clinic in Stafford and received a prp injection administered by Ansar Mahmood a frankly awe inspiring clinician. Trauma orthopaedic surgeon within the nhs but with huge belief and enthusiasm in biologics especially prp. Lots of nerdy conversation about ideal prp content, a superb comparative learning opportunity and a seamless expertly delivered process. We use a centrifuge system at VAS as a back up to apheresis and for smaller patients. We enjoyed sharing our mutual positive findings using estar médicals tropocells/tropovet technology.

Meet a VAS superstar - Zeus the stunning Friesian ❤️. Zeus has progressed through a careful treatment and rehabilitation...
03/10/2024

Meet a VAS superstar - Zeus the stunning Friesian ❤️. Zeus has progressed through a careful treatment and rehabilitation plan that has involved a course of PRP to manage à bilateral stifle problem that began in 2022. He returned for the collection of a further bank of PRP this week. He was a gem through a 70 minute collection to yield 320ml of prp. He enjoyed listening to alphonso the apheresis machine who is talkative (in a very soft series of clicks and whirrs until his final beepy happy dance on completion). To see Zeus in such superb shape and being part of the ongoing plan to keep him as comfortable as possible is an absolute pleasure and completely what VAS is all about. ❤️

We’re in print after our abstract delivery at beva Congress in Liverpool yesterday 🙂
13/09/2024

We’re in print after our abstract delivery at beva Congress in Liverpool yesterday 🙂

Click on the article title to read more.

We’ve headed to BEVA Congress in Liverpool today - ready to present our initial cohort abstract: Apheresis as a method t...
11/09/2024

We’ve headed to BEVA Congress in Liverpool today - ready to present our initial cohort abstract: Apheresis as a method to produce multiple doses of leucoreduced platelet rich plasma for autologous regenerative medicine use in 84 UK riding horses with naturally occurring injury.
14.54 tomorrow
It’s great to be here and as always it’s thanks to the support of my co authors Dr Anne Hale and Katie Brickman.
Here’s hoping I can do the service justice and the abstract is well received. However it goes it feels like a nice achievement to be here to illustrate nearly 3 years of VAS helping some fabulous horses recover from injury ❤️

Prp therapy reaching a few patients this week.  A repeat treatment for Murphy the German shepherd who was first treated ...
07/08/2024

Prp therapy reaching a few patients this week. A repeat treatment for Murphy the German shepherd who was first treated a year ago for elbow dysplasia. He’s been sound with no requirement for medication for 12 months (he was on pain relief injections regularly prior to his prp). His very vigilant owners and vet noted a mild lameness returning (which unfortunately is inevitable with this condition) so he received a further treatment this week. He’s still speaking to us, and is trotting around very happily post his injection so we consider that a success all round ❤️. Then we’ve been out on the road collecting from three gorgeous equine patients today. As always their stories and partnership with their owners really helps motivate our ongoing work. These horses mean the world to their owners and we feel privileged to work with them as a team effort to get them back doing what they love for as long as possible. The bonus to the week was seeing quite a few of our past patients back in sound work at the other side of treatment and rehab 🙂

All set up and ready to roll for our 5th platelet apheresis patient of the week.   As always we’ve met some beautiful ho...
04/07/2024

All set up and ready to roll for our 5th platelet apheresis patient of the week. As always we’ve met some beautiful horses and heard the stories behind them. It’s so hard for owners when their horses are injured but it’s so nice to be part of such a positive program to heal them as well as we can by incorporating regenerative medicine therapies into their treatment ❤️. It’s a huge team effort.

100 Milestone celebration 🎉❤️.  Meet Merlin - VAS UK’s 100th platelet apheresis candidate 🎉🎉Fittingliy Merlin epitomises...
26/05/2024

100 Milestone celebration 🎉❤️. Meet Merlin - VAS UK’s 100th platelet apheresis candidate 🎉🎉Fittingliy Merlin epitomises the ideal candidate that VAS UK was launched for. Our aim being to offer an accessible, affordable, high quality method of collecting platelets to be used at the time of collection and as a bank for repeat administration during injury rehabilitation programmes or in case of further injury. Merlin is just 15 months old and had a growth related joint problem (OCD) in his hock that had been diagnosed and treated arthroscopically. He will undergo a course of prp injections to optimise healing. He was exceptionally well behaved for his apheresis. We were delighted to celebrate this milestone with Ridings Equine Vets where Merlin is being treated.

Exciting news for VAS in our constant quest for optimum quality product, strict quality control, constant learning and e...
26/04/2024

Exciting news for VAS in our constant quest for optimum quality product, strict quality control, constant learning and evidence base for the use of our PRP products. We submitted an abstract to the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) congress to be held in Liverpool in September and yesterday while out on the road performing apheresis we had notification that it has been accepted 🙂. Lots of work now to draw all of our findings into presentation format ❤️. Huge thanks as always to my partners in crime co authors - Katie Brickman and Dr Anne Hale.

17/04/2024
We’ve been quiet on social media recently but working away on lots of progress behind the scenes.  However we had to tak...
03/04/2024

We’ve been quiet on social media recently but working away on lots of progress behind the scenes. However we had to take time to post a pic of this superstar apheresis candidate - Loki. We reckon his head is the size of Maria’s torso and we did have a moment of wondering whether he would fit in the stocks at ridings equine vets. He did perfectly fine and was brilliant from start to finish to collect 300ml of super quality prp. Such a lovely gentle giant of a horse. We wish him really well for his ongoing treatment and rehabilitation ❤️

10/02/2024

The stifle is prepared by repeated cleaning the way any surgical site would be. Sterile gloves are worn and a sterile needle is placed into the joint. We know it is sited in the right place when we see joint fluid at the hub or in this case flowing out of the needle. The prp that has been prepared in a closed system again using meticulous sterile technique is then injected into the joint. Pre clinical work indicates that peak response yo each injection is seen at around 6 weeks post injection. In severely inflamed cases a course of prp injections can be recommended.

A busy few weeks out with horses ❤️. A little on the chilly side 😂. This is the beautiful mae who was a complete gem for...
10/02/2024

A busy few weeks out with horses ❤️. A little on the chilly side 😂. This is the beautiful mae who was a complete gem for her collection this week. A horselyx and reassurance from her owner kept her perfectly settled for her 40 minute procedure.

Meet the lovely Dave.  We visited Dave this week in Yorkshire to apherese him for a bank of platelets as he has multiple...
26/01/2024

Meet the lovely Dave. We visited Dave this week in Yorkshire to apherese him for a bank of platelets as he has multiple niggly arthritic joints that are making him sore and unable to be ridden. He was a superstar patient while we collected 270ml of PRP in his stable, needing no more than lots of attention and a horselyx to keep him settled. We collected his plentiful bank by apheresing 3 litres of blood in 50 minutes. A larger bank was collected so that treatments can be reached for over the coming months to try and get him back into comfortable working. A video of one of the joint injections is within the comments showing a carpal injection of prp into his joint (we know we’re in the right place when joint fluid is seen when the needle is placed into the sterile prepared site) His quality control tests revealed he yielded perfect prp. We wish him and his super patient and caring owner all the very best for his rehabilitation and a smooth return to having fun together.

Client appreciation post:  Services like VAS need likeminded clients, as we are not a stand alone service - we work hand...
15/10/2023

Client appreciation post: Services like VAS need likeminded clients, as we are not a stand alone service - we work hand in hand with equine vets, owners and a myriad of rehabilitation personnel. Since February 2022 we've been working alongside KR Equestrian in Yorkshire. Kim Richards runs a livery and rehabilitation yard, that caters for comprehensive rehabilitation programs for horses recovering from injury. The aim being to optimise their recovery and return to work alongside their vet. This aligns perfectly with regenerative medicine treatments such as VAS PRP treatment and banking. In 18 months we've provided PRP for eleven horses at KR equestrian during their rehabilitation from a variety of injuries. Pictured are some of the fabulous horses and ponies undergoing apheresis at the yard (stableside collections), a picture of a coffin joint treatment taking place and a few of the treated horses back competing. Many thanks to all of the lovely owners (including Kim) who have consented to have their horses and ponies pictures featured to illustrate the service :-)

Two of VAS’s six equine apheresis superstars this week Marty and Beau, treated by VAS alongside the team at ridings equi...
13/10/2023

Two of VAS’s six equine apheresis superstars this week Marty and Beau, treated by VAS alongside the team at ridings equine vets. Stifles, coffin joints, tendons and navicular bursae were all on the list of injuries requiring prp this week. The horses were all awesome requiring no sedation for the apheresis process to be performed just enjoying some fuss and horselyx from the ridings grooms and nurses.
Fun apheresis fact - the bag of prp on the pics had a concentration of 1 trillion 12 billion platelets per litre. 243ml of prp was collected in 42 minutes from 3 litres of circulating whole blood. The absolute numbers in the final prp equated to 246 billion platelets in one collection❤️
We wish all of the patients from this week a speedy recovery. Ridings have their prp banks now stored safely for their ongoing courses of treatment as they rehabilitate.

Reviews are often useful for service development.  This handsome chap Murphy visited us for the collection of a bank of ...
13/10/2023

Reviews are often useful for service development. This handsome chap Murphy visited us for the collection of a bank of prp and a treatment a few months ago. He’s been having lots of holidays and trips since - last seen captaining a boat with his dad in Windermere. The lovely part - currently no lameness. His bank of prp is safely stored for ongoing treatments as required. He was a fabulous chap to spend time with ❤️

13/10/2023

Vas followers havé met Layla before but we just wanted to share her progress 8 months down the line after left elbow joint surgery and a course of prp treatment. We know this is not the end of laylas story. We know whatever we do that she will need a lifetime of attention to maximise her comfort but that’s what regen med is all about. For now she’s enjoying life with her owner medication free as an 18 month old dog should. We’re watching the studies into elbow dysplasia intently including utilising prp, stems and hydrogels in order to maximise the recomendations we make, but for now we’re very happy with her response to her course of prp and her bank of frozen prp is safely stored for repeat treatments as required.

Abstract delivered at the North American veterinary regenerative medicine association Congress 2023.  Lots of learning, ...
25/09/2023

Abstract delivered at the North American veterinary regenerative medicine association Congress 2023. Lots of learning, lots of inspiring work and a little bit of snorkelling alongside 😊. Huge thanks to my co authors - Dr Anne Hale and Katie Brickman

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