It all started with a bichon that refused to heal.

Water therapy, surgery, pain meds, nothing eased the arthritis in Nikki's legs.

Until the vet proposed a last resort.

"He kept suggesting this stem cell therapy because I tried everything and it didn't work," said Nikki's owner, Chris Harding of Coeur d'Alene. "I thought that was something that couldn't harm him any further."

It all went down last month. Stem cells from Harding's 13-year-old pooch were harvested from his own body fat, and then injected into his joints.

No televangelist-style recovery yet, Harding said.

But there's more hope than before.

"He's picking up his favorite toy, he'll carry it and try to hide it around the house. He hasn't done that in years," Harding said. "I think it's a mental sign he's feeling better."

It was both curiosity and a desire to help canines in dire physical conditions that compelled Dr. Bruce King of Lakewood Animal Hospital to become certified in animal regenerative stem cell therapy.

After conducting experimental surgeries on five dogs with severe conditions in late January, the Coeur d'Alene vet is convinced it is the future of treating animals.

"I think it will be one of those things where of course you get by and do the best you can, but then something really, really good comes along and it's hard to comprehend how things were before that," said King, past president of the Idaho Board of Veterinary Medicine.

He initially learned about the new treatment in a medical journal, how stem cells can be surgically removed from dogs and then injected into joints with degenerative diseases.

The result is improved joint cartilage, he said, that is more elastic and less painful.

"These cells go in and they retrain or they stimulate the joint to acting more like a young joint again," he explained.

It had never occurred to him that he could be performing this procedure, he said, still an emerging technology and not widely practiced in the U.S.

But he had an unusual tie to two experts in the field.

King had earlier inquired about the treatment with the leading veterinarian in stem cell therapy, Dr. Bob Harmon of Vet-Stem Regenerative Veterinary Medicine in Poway, Calif.

"He's probably one of the most experienced people around," King said.

Someone else was talking to Harmon, too. That was Dr. Marty Becker, author and resident veterinarian on "Good Morning America" and "The Dr. Oz Show," who is also an Idaho native and practices at King's hospital a couple days a month.

Also interested in the new treatment, Becker persuaded Harmon to fly to Idaho to train Becker and King together.

With Harmon came another stem cell expert, Dr. Timothy McCarthy from Portland, Ore.

"That's not typical. Normally, Dr. Harmon does not fly from California to Idaho and Dr. McCarthy doesn't fly from Portland," King said. "It was through that connection that I was able to get this type of training."

Harmon, in a phone interview, said this was actually a natural step for him to take, as he has trained vets in stem cell therapy across the country, trying to broaden awareness of the treatment only several years old.

"For the last four years, we've been training small animal vets," said Harmon, whose practice helps develop new veterinary technologies and is licensed to conduct animal regenerative stem cell therapy. "This (therapy) is pretty new. Most vets when they went to school did not have this training."

About 7,000 dogs and horses in the U.S. have undergone the treatment in the last several years using his company's stem cell removal technology, Harmon said.

About 70 percent have experienced better movement and quality of life, he estimated.

"It allows us to treat things that typical drugs and other methods don't work for," Harmon said. "That's why it's so exciting."

Dr. Bruce wanted to see for himself.

"There's nothing like seeing it with your own eyes," he said.

The doctors arrived the last week of January, with only the single week for a marathon of consults and surgeries.

King had to find canines who qualified, he said, adding that only dogs who can't be helped by any other treatment should go through it.

"You don't want to do this for a mild case," he said.

He found five. First Nikki, the bichon. There was also a German shepherd with severe shoulder arthritis; a male bichon with cruciate ligament disease; a springer spaniel with arthritis in seven joints; and a chocolate lab with crippling arthritis after being hit by a car as a puppy.

"I knew how poorly these individual dogs were getting around," King said. "I could see first hand how well they did."

After Becker and King went through a brief training course, the four doctors started the treatments.

The process is relatively quick, beginning with surgery to remove stem cells from the animal's tissue.

The best source is the stomach fat, King said, because it is easy to access and doesn't cause much pain.

"Just like a lot of the American human population, a lot of the American pet population has a lot of fat on its body," he said.

Then the stem cells are FedExed overnight to the Vet-Stem lab in San Diego, where the company has the equipment and expertise to separate the fat-derived stem cells, as well as proteins and hormones.

The stem cells are shipped back in sterile syringes.

Forty-eight hours after the initial surgery, the pooch is anesthetized and injected.

It's then a matter of waiting to see results.

"The typical experience (to wait) is two to 10 weeks," King said.

Caren Spencer said she wasn't nervous about her bichon going under the knife.

"I think it was a fabulous opportunity for Jordan to be selected. It's like cutting-edge medicine," the Hayden woman said. "I had never heard of it on dogs before."

So far, Jordan is just taking it easy, Spencer said.

No big changes yet, but she's optimistic.

"He's just like a member of the family," she said. "He's an awesome dog."

Other participants have seen slight progress, King said. One started showing improvement within the first day.

"Right now, it seems very promising," King said.

Harmon said he only knows of one other Idaho veterinary practice - in McCall - that has been certified in this treatment.

King will continue offering the treatment at his practice, he said. He doesn't expect a flood of demand, though, as the cost of surgery, stem cell removal and injections totals about $2,700.

"I think that over time, a lot of colleagues will be interested in doing it because there are so many advantages," King said, adding that he hopes more providers will mean a lower cost.

Dr. Kevin Rogers, owner of Kootenai Animal Hospital, said he has only recently started researching the new stem cell therapy, but believes there is valid science behind it.

"I'm glad to see he (King) is taking the lead in our area with this," he said. "As we build a body of cases, it'll prove its merit, or show us it wasn't what it was we hoped."

Rogers is concerned that it could take time to build a large body of cases to study, though.

"It is expensive therapy," he said. "That's always an issue. There's not an Obamacare for pets yet."

There's at least one more surgery in store - for King's 10-year-old lab, Catcher, plagued with significant hip and knee arthritis.

"I would have liked to include him in the group we did that week, but we just ran out of time. You know, the cobbler's children go without shoes," he said with a chuckle. "I felt that it was a great honor to be able to be instructed by these individuals. Nothing is going to give you a better start than learning from the best in the field."