Can Laser Treatments Help a Dog with Arthritis?
So, you've heard about laser and you've heard that laser can help with arthritis. Well, certainly it can in the right hands. So, laser therapy, also known as photobiomodulation can be very, very powerful in controlling pain, improving blood flow, which brings with it healing to certain areas of the body and deal with muscle spasms. So yes, it can really help, but it's got to be the right kind of machine in the right hands.
So, don't go onto Amazon or another said retailer and just purchase some handheld device that promises to be a laser. It's a lot more complex. Now, let me just tell you, the lasers that we use are about $20,000 or more. So a handheld LED light device about $150, really isn't going to offer the same medicinal benefits. If you want to pursue laser therapy, again, chat to your vet, many vets now stock their own laser. They might actually be able to introduce you to a physiotherapist or laser therapist. Now, these people have had extra training. They haven't just had training in how to use the device. So they choose how much power of what wavelengths to get to what depth, to do what thing. But they've also got a greater understanding of that anatomy, and that many of them have actually had further teaching on how to identify areas of pain, so they can target that laser specifically.
You might have a dog that's got severe hip arthritis, but believe it or not, that isn't what's causing that dog pain at that point. It's the fact that over the years, they've put all of their weight into their shoulders and into their neck because they've been taking the weight of their back legs, and they've got lots of tension and spasms and knots and then tendinopathies and they're all sore at the front. Now, a good laser therapist is going to be able to spot that and say, "Actually, it is much better that I use this treatment on that region to get your dog's pain state under control rather than putting it onto the area that actually at this time, isn't that painful." So as I say, be careful, don't go and purchase something online and expect it's going to do wonders, it probably won't.
For additional information about canine arthritis, check out Dr. Capon's work at Canine Arthritis Management.
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