FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) ― A growing number of pet owners are sending their dogs and cats to physical therapy to help with aches and pains, and lasers can be are part of the treatment.
Amanda Baldwin gives her dog Davis two pain pills every day for his hips. She’d like to cut back on those drugs, while still cutting the pain.
“I would like to see him more comfortable and showing less pain,” Baldwin said. “Maybe going up and down the stairs a little bit quicker.”
Now, a relatively new, higher-powered laser at Aspen Grove Veterinary Care may provide relief.
“We’re going to heal quicker, we’re going to reduce pain, we’re going to increase blood flow to the area,” Dr. Bobby Cawthron with Aspen Grove said.
Cawthron said the new laser is part of a new breed of more powerful machines that send light energy much deeper into injured tissues.
“It will get down to the muscles deep that surround the femur, as well as towards the joint, to reduce the swelling and that inflammation and allow the body to recover quicker, to repair itself quicker and to just feel better,” Cawthron said
Cawthron said the new Class 4 lasers can help dogs or cats with chronic arthritis. It will also help after surgery, or recovering from injury.
“For some dogs, they don’t tolerate those medications at all,” Cawthron said. “They make them sick; they have liver and kidney issues. In some of those dogs, this may be the only alternative they have to some of that pain relief.”
For Davis, it was the first day of laser therapy with the higher powered beam. Baldwin works at the vet clinic, so there’ll be plenty of opportunity to see if they can get rid of the pain and perhaps, eventually, get rid of the pain pills too.
The company that makes the therapeutic laser says it’s sold about 15 across Colorado.
