Newark – Local canine cop Paco got hurt in a tough training exercise and was limping so badly he couldn’t keep chasing the bad guys. So his partner, Officer Chris Jones, took him to a veterinarian.
At the New London Vet Center in Newark, the six year-old German Shepherd received deep-penetrating laser light on his hips. Paco had suffered a muscle sprain when he fell while attacking an officer wearing a “bite suit” and posing as a perpetrator.
Before the coming of therapy lasers injuries like this, according to Paco’s vet, were typically treated with pain medication and required cage rest for up to a month. But Jones reports, “These treatments worked so well he only missed two days at work. By the end of the second week he was dancing around like a puppy.” The FDA-approved lasers, manufactured by LiteCure at its plant in Newark, have been on the market three years. They are now used by 1,500 veterinarians, physicians, clinicians and team trainers around the country.
At present, two veterinary clinics in Delaware are offering laser treatments“ New London in Newark and Forrest Avenue Animal Hospital in Dover. Both facilities report LiteCure’s lasers are being used to treat joint pain from arthritis and torn ligaments and to promote healing of wounds.
“The laser promotes healing by increasing blood flow to the area, decreasing inflammation and helping produce fresh cells,” says senior technician Tina Jones at New London Vet Center. “You can actually see the healing happen.”
Jones says her own golden retriever Carlisle was one of the first to get a laser treatment for his neutering incision. When she checked on him at the end of the day, the dog had chewed out his sutures, but she says, “You could barely tell he’d had surgery. It started healing over within 24 hours.
The New London clinic has had a Companion Therapy Laser since last May and is using it to treat about a dozen animals a month.
“We use it for almost everything,” says Jones. “For hips, knees, backs, cysts, ear inflammation, to treat bladder leakage and incontinence problems, for dental work. We us it for every surgical procedure we do except for a mass.”
Despite the quick recoveries of Paco the police dog and her own pet, Carlisle, Jones has another patient she calls her “miracle case.”
That is a 12-year-old Shepherd-Sheltie mix named Clare that had had three major operations on her rear legs, including pins placed in her knees, before coming to New London Center for laser treatment.
“She was majorly arthritic,” Tina reports, “she couldn’t go up stairs when she started with us because her knees hurt so bad.”
This dog had laser therapy in July of last year and hasn’t needed any further treatments or medication since. Tina reports, “Now she’s walking a mile a day with the owner.”
The owner, Cricket Barazotto of Towson, Md., says, “I was desperate to get Clare out of pain. It was hard for her to walk through our neighborhood. But after the first week of laser therapy she started jumping back up on our bed. I’m getting ready right now to take her to the park where she does a mile without panting. I’ve got no reason to blow smoke, I’m just telling you, the treatment is that good.”
Source: Newark Post Online
