Animal Health 09/24/20 - Laser Therapy

Dr. Karen Emerson introduces us to a dog who suffered from severe arthritis in both the knee as well as hip.

By using laser therapy they were able to treat her ailments and bring her back to her old self.

Dr. emerson: good morning, sunrisers.

I'm dr. karen emerson and today i have with me my technician mary parker and this beautiful german shepherd is zoe.

Dr. emerson: zoe is actually a 10 year old german shepherd that presented a few months ago, not really feeling very well.

She was limping, not wanting to get up and down.

She was actually even sort of holding this left knee up.

And if any of you familiar with football and athletes or you may have this issue, she actually has a cranial cruciate disease.

Dr. emerson: now, i actually have a model of a knee right here to show you.

There's internal ligaments in here that are cruciate limit ligaments that cause the knee to do appropriately when you walk.

Well, hers were torn, so instead of the knee being stable when she walks, it kind of moves and when you get that bone on bone rubbing on each other, it causes severe arthritis.

And i know probably a lot of you out there suffer from arthritis.

It's very painful.

It hurts.

Dr. emerson: normally what we have to do is we recommend surgical therapy, but not all owners or dogs are ready to go through that and have knee surgery.

So we also have something that we can help with that called conservative therapy.

We actually have something here called laser therapy.

She actually comes in and we actually laser her entire knee.

Dr. emerson: i know a lot of you probably heard me talking about laser therapy.

We actually just purchased a newer laser that's even more effective where, if you come in and get a treatment and you may can last a whole month before you even have to come in to get another one.

Dr. emerson: zoe's actually had six treatments and she is doing fabulous.

She's walking well, she's having less episodes of limping.

We've also got her up more weight, trying to decrease her weight, because the less weight, the less pressure that's going to be on this knee.

Dr. emerson: she also has one more minor issue.

Her hip actually has a little bit of arthritis in it, too, so not only is she suffering from a knee, she's also suffering from a hip.

So she's getting her laser treatment.

We also have her on some supplements that are going to help.

Dr. emerson: but if you have a dog that you notice is limping, you're just like, "oh, it's just arthritis," it's very important to get that checked out.

You may not be able to do surgery, but we've got so many other alternatives and laser therapy is at the top of the list.

Dr. emerson: so please give us a call today and i promise your pets will.

Thank you.

Announcer: wcbi animal heath with dr. emerson was brought to you by emerson animal hospital in west point.

2shot