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Pardon us for being a little more serious than normal (we Siberians do have a wicked sense of humor), but we want to tell you about laser therapy for dogs. Our vet, the Animal Hospital of Waynesville, called to let us know that they were installing new laser technology. They were training their staff on the new equipment and were looking for volunteers.
Queen Natasha volunteered.
Why Queen Natasha? Because of her easy-going, good-natured personality? If you believe that, you are obviously new to this blog. Queen Natasha the Evil is not known as “The Evil” for her easy-going, good-natured personality.
QNTE was selected because she has developed arthritis in her lower spine and right hip. She holds her own in the yard keeping rule over The Herd, but you can notice her hesitancy to jump up on objects. For example, she used to chase all of the other dogs off of the human bed (and sometimes some humans), but she no longer tries to jump up on the bed. The goal of the laser treatment is to increase her comfort level so she can continue to terrorize . . . er, rule The Herd.
Selecting some reading material in the waiting room.
Now we know that we are not supposed to reveal a lady’s weight, but QNTE is quite proud that she has lost several pounds on the green bean diet (substitute green beans for about 1/4 of the normal meal and watch the pounds melt away). She weighed in at 51.7 pounds (23.5 kg) yesterday. Diet, combined with exercise, helps to keep pressure off of the arthritic joints.
Mmmmmmmm, that laser provides some great warmth and isn’t painful at all.
For the next couple of weeks, Natasha will go for thrice-weekly treatments, and then we will reduce to a laser treatment every few weeks.
My medical charts make it clear that I get peanut butter during all procedures. Really – it says it in the charts.
As we go through the treatments, we will keep you posted with the progress.
For those of you as geeky as the hu-dad, here is a picture of the monitoring device that tracks my treatments.
If you want to read some more about the laser treatment, we highly recommend this article.
Me? I will just focus on the peanut butter and the warmth of the laser loosening my joints.
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Gibson has been getting K-laser treatments (his video is on their MyKLaserPet.com website) for a couple years now and he loves it and so do I! It’s like a spa day for him! I have seen great improvements with his bouts of hind end weakness, for his CCL tear, for a cut, and for arthritis. I think you both will be very happy with it! Good luck! Hoping she gets good relief from it. Looking forward to your updates!
Leena wants to know if this would work on her human. Her human is lazy and and can’t move well, and she would like him to walk more and jump up on the bed with her more 😛
We have heard of this treatment, but fortunate enough to be young and healthy so we have no experience with it. I am glad to learn more about laser treatment and see how QNTE does with her treatments. Thanks for sharing with us.
I have heard fantastic things about laser therapy for dogs. Actually, I wish I’d learned about it a year earlier than I did. My mom’s dog tore his ACL and it’s supposed to be very good for treating that pain when surgery isn’t an option. My mom couldn’t make tough decisions that needed to be made for him, and I think it would have made the last six months of his life a lot more enjoyable.
Oh, if only there was something like that available in our part of the world! (Peace Country of Northern BC, Canada). Poor Ice is still mourning the loss of our Ayla, not getting the exercise he should be getting due to lousy weather up here, and he’s got one really bad shoulder, and his hips stiffening up. Have tried him on Glucosamine, but it isn’t even touching the arthritis.
Good luck QNTE!! I’ve heard laser treatments are awesome and have seen them do some miracles on dogs in much worse shape than you. I, too, have a dog who used to rule the roost (And still does) but also now rarely jumps on our bed since a back injury 6 months ago or so. If this gets you back on the bed I think I’ll take her in for some of her own treatments 🙂
Have also had success with laser therapy. Another thing to look into is green lipped mussel, sourced from New Zealand. Our feline pack member has an arthritic hip and his limp has virtually disappeared after getting him on it. It’s doesn’t just address arthritis either. All three canine kids and the feline are on it now. My integrative/alternative vet has decided to carry it in her clinic after researching it.
Our human physical therapist has been using laser therapy for a while, and since the husband and I are always doing soft-tissue damage, we bought our own laser machine a few years ago and the thing is a miracle worker. We’ve used it whenever the girls tweak something, and it is amazing how well it works. Are are certain the Queen will be back to her Evil Deeds in no time. 🙂
Our vet has been doing laser treatments for several years now. The first time Roxxy tore her ACL about 8 years ago, they were just getting trained and weren’t offering treatments. She had surgery to replace it and it took about 6 months for her to heal and get back to normal. 2 years later when she tore the other ACL, she had the replacement surgery and laser treatments on a schedule that tapered off for a couple of months. Her recover was nothing short of miraculous.
I’ve been taking her for laser treatments for her arthritis for a few years now and it does seem to help. She definitely is more comfortable and you can see it’s not as difficult to jump into the car.
I hope Natasha gets the same kind of relief.
We’ve heard good things about laser treatments. Sounds like the Queen will be back on the throne in no time!