In caring for your pets, one of our most frequent challenges is managing pain and inflammation. A huge variety of injuries and illnesses both sudden and more chronic require pain control as part of getting your pet feeling better again.
To watch a demonstration of laser therapy click here.
At Upper Canada Animal Hospital, excellent pain management is extremely important to us in everything that we do, and we are constantly looking for ways to keep up with the latest advancements in therapy to help your pet heal faster and stay pain free. Because of this, we offer one of the most exciting and cutting edge new technologies in pain management, cold laser therapy.
Laser therapy works by emitting light energy that penetrates deeply into cells and promotes a variety of helpful metabolic changes. Some of the most important examples include the production of endorphins, inhibition of inflammatory mediators, decreased sensitivity of nerve fibers, and increased rates of cell repair. Ultimately, the three major effects of laser therapy are pain relief, reduced inflammation, and faster healing.
Laser therapy is useful in many situations, and is most commonly used to treat wounds, skin and ear infections, muscle sprains and strains, arthritis, and post-surgical pain. Laser therapy has many advantages. It is very safe, has virtually no side effects, and is completely non-invasive.
When your pet comes to Upper Canada for a laser therapy treatment, they will be placed in a room with you and the laser therapy unit will be brought in. The laser unit is very safe, but the light should not be shined directly into a person or animal’s eyes. You will see the technician operating the laser will put on protective eyeware for this reason, and if your pet’s treatment is near their face a protective cloth will be placed carefully over their eyes. The laser hand piece that emits the laser light will be gently placed against your pet’s skin and moved slowly back and forth. The light creates a warming sensation against the skin which many dogs and cats find relaxing. It is common for some pets to become very relaxed and sleepy during their treatments. Each treatment takes approximately 3-4 minutes depending on the size of the area.
A specific laser therapy treatment plan will be formulated for your pet prior to treatment, however most conditions require multiple treatments in the first few weeks for optimal effectiveness. Fresh injuries or post surgical pain can respond very well to a single treatment, whereas more chronic conditions such as arthritis often need 6 to 10 treatments initially and then maintenance a few times a year.
If you are interested in laser therapy as a completely non-invasive, side-effect free treatment for reducing pain and speeding up healing times in your pet, please contact us today.
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