Not Just Any Laser Therapy Device
We are honoured that yet again our Veterinary Colleagues, this time the amazing team at Wauchope Veterinary Clinic, have chosen to switch to our Vets1laser laser therapy machine to continue on their veterinary medical laser journey. Wauchope Vet Clinic’s dedicated staff will now be able to add another point of difference-in this instance Laser/PBM therapy-to the already excellent care and range of services they provide to companion animals in the Wauchope/Port Macquarie area.
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A huge thanks to all the amazing team, led by Simon and Dr Katie, at Sugarloaf Animal Hospital, West Wallsend of their time and collegiality during our training and installation on Wednesday. It was lovely to deliver a training lecture amongst such an engaged, curious and committed Veterinary team. We look forward to hearing of some wonderful treatment outcomes using the Vets1laser. Thanks to the dedication of this caring Sugarloaf Vet team, Companion and Pocket Pet owners of the West Wallsend and Newcastle area are able to easily access the opportunity to add in a new safe, drug-free, medical therapy to assist their beloved pet on the road to recovery from any illness, great or small.
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A big welcome to the amazing Dr Mae Hingee of ‘Hoppy Housecalls’ Canberra, who has chosen our Vets1laser medical therapy machine with which to continue her photobiomodulation journey. We are delighted to have such a knowledgeable and dedicated vet as Dr Mae chose our Vets1laser company for her medical Laser/PBM therapy needs. The rabbit owners of Canberra are indeed very lucky to have such a dedicated rabbit Vet amongst them and will no doubt soon see firsthand, the wonderful drug-free medical benefits that Dr Hingee’s therapy machine will deliver for their own pets.
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What happens when the animal patient won’t tolerate the safety googles or are just too tiny for even the cat googles?
Covering their eyes with your hand is not a valid Plan B as depending on the power used, enough light to damage their eyes can still pass through your hand.
Dr Aine has done some experiments with safety physicists to narrow down what common materials might be used to reduce the ocular risk to the veterinary patient. The results of that work will be available next week to our Vets1laser clients on our website in the library section under Treatment Tips so make sure to look out for the new treatment tip post.
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GOLPP or Geriatric Onset Laryngeal Paralysis Polyneuropathy is a distressing and progressive disease which does however respond to rehabilitation interventions. Laser/PBM therapy is an ideal rehab adjunct treatment. PBMT will reduce inflammation, swelling and promote tissue repair, analgesia and improve muscle function.
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A Warm Welcome and Congratulations.
Welcome to our newest Vets1Laser users : Bomaderry Veterinary Hospital & Four Paws Rebab Centre. The dedicated Veterinary and Rehab Centre staff offer an extra-ordinary range of veterinary services for their local area. We were delighted and honoured when their team, already seasoned laser therapists, chose our Vets1laser machines to facilitate their team’s onward journey with all things veterinary laser/pbmt
Congratulations also to Dr David for celebrating his 2nd anniversary of using our Vets1laser machine at his own practice, by purchasing an additional machine to deal with the increased demand from his successful implementation of Laser/PBM therapy into his veterinary practice
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When it comes to Laser/pbm therapy-All That Glitters is Not Good.
Top marks to the team at waterwalkies and their detailed commitment to creating a Laser Safety Zone for their treatment sessions. It has been a joy to train this team of focused professionals to implement laser/pbm therapy into their treatment sessions. You don’t have to know much about laser safety to see the quantum safety differences in waterwalkies setup compared to so many other laser therapy images posted on various social media. https://lnkd.in/dPUvXcrm
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Yes, there is an Optimal Time: Mornings.
However, that doesn’t mean that Laser/PBM therapy sessions scheduled for other times of the day won’t work. You will get efficacy from PBM applied any time of the day so continue to schedule appointment times as it suits you and the client.
However, if you have the luxury of booking treatment sessions in a Morning slot, then do so in preference for two particular reasons.
1)Morning sessions are preferred if this is the First time the animal is having laser. This is simply so as to have the full working day to find out if this particular patient gets a strong ergogenic response to the treatment.
If so then that animal will be a bundle of energy and sleep will be the last thing on their mind. This means the pet and the owner might very well have a sleepless night if the pet decides come bedtime, that it is still time to play and play and not sleep.
Therefore on the occasions that you can’t schedule a morning appointment, be sure to cheerfully alert the client that the pet could be active for longer than normal. Most clients if prewarned are then fine if they are up all night with a super active happy pet.
This ergogenic effect doesn’t always occur, some animals in fact are the opposite and want to sleep around the clock. Again clients should be pre-warned that this can happen so that they don’t panic after hours at a pet who just wants to stay curled up in bed after a laser treatment.
2) Mitochondria are ‘Morning’ Workers.
Mitochondria are the main targets for Red-NIR wavelengths so it makes sense to treat when the target is most responsive. Some studies indicate that early morning, or at a minimum within 8 hours of awakening, is the time when mitochondria have spare capacity and are most sensitive to having improvements in the function of cytochrome C complex and ATP production.
At the start of the day, ATP levels are high which results in a homeostatic reduction in complex activity as demand is low, with mitochondria only needed to top up the system which has not been drained by previous activity. Later when respiration increases, complex activity is elevated as ATP levels declined due to consumption. Mitochondria later in the day have reduced spare capacity to respond as daily activity has increased their workload.
So where possible-Choose Morning Treatment Times.
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Spare the Scapel & the Scar. Instead, Leave it to Laser/PBM to atraumatically resolve those tricky presentations that are normally slow to respond to traditional treatments. The case attached is from before and post 6 Laser/PBM treatment sessions.
Our thanks to Dr Shane Sullivan for the use of these images.
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Our current advice is to wait 8-10 days after the last PBM therapy session before running a glucose curve test. PBM can have beneficial and stabilizing effects on blood glucose levels-which is wonderful news especially as hypoglycemia was not a risk. However, the effect of the stabilization could interfere with the accuracy of a Glucose Curve blood test interpretation for up to 7 days after a laser therapy session.
We therefore advise, where possible, to wait 8-10 days.
If this is not possible, then remember to factor in any interference that a PBM therapy session might have had on your blood draw results
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Thyroid Testing & PMBT.
When it comes to the harvesting of a Thyroid Blood Screening Test, make sure you are aware of ALL the interfering factors that can give you a non-representative result for that patient. One of those factors may well be the concurrent use of PBMT in the days peri-harvesting the blood screen.
Photobiomodulation/Class 4 lasers can have impacts on a diseased thyroid gland. Whilst we have been taught to avoid the actual thyroid gland itself as one of the normal rules of laser/PBM therapy; more recent articles now suggest that PBMT does not cause morphological changes on the healthy thyroid gland.
However, in the diseased* thyroid gland, PBM therapy can have an actual beneficial effect. In one study in humans, the use of PBMT caused a reduction in the daily dose of thyroid medication. Given that PBMT targets and modulates inflammation and given so many thyroidal diseases are inflammatory or immune-mediated in nature, it makes sense that PBMT would be of benefit, not of detriment, for many of these presentations.
However, the curve ball is that if your patient is on PBM therapy for any reason; be alert that the therapy could alter serum thyroid levels enough that a marginal hypothyroid case might be masked.
If you do run a thyroid screen test, factor in any interference in your serum blood level result.
*Clarification: Never use the laser anywhere near any neoplastic lesion especially if it is a tumour in the thyroid gland i.e. cats.
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Dairy Vets: Did you know that Laser/PBM therapy attenuates Mastitis and hence beautifully compliments the Global Drive to restore mammary health in Food Production Animals without the use of antibiotics? Previous publications showed that PBMT aided restoration of mammary health without the need to recourse to antibiotic use. PBMT lowered the incidence of subclinical mastitis.
PBMT also aids in preventing an increase in the size of teat hyperkeratosis lesions in cows.
In Lab animals, PBMT reduced polymorphonuclear cells in the mammary alveolus and reduced myeloperoxidase activity, which is a marker for mastitis.
A 2024 paper on Bovine sub-clinical mastitis, reported a decrease in the bacteria count, no changes in the milk composition, and all without generating residues in the milk.
The benefits to the animal are a reduction in pain by an increase both in blood supply and lymphatic drainage, a reduction in oedema, and an increased milk let-down.
The important benefit of this tool in the management of mastitis for the farmer is that one avoids the bad economics of long withdrawal times and unavoidable culling.
The reduction in the Somatic Cell Count and improved milk quality is of economic benefit to farmers both in an immediate sense regarding sustained high-quality milk sales etc but also on the potential future sale value of the progeny of animals coming from a persistently low SCC herd.
PBMT is also used as an adjunct treatment for hoof ailments and general skin lesions etc
If you are interested in attenuating the pain and loss of production by using a gentle, but powerful treatment, that additionally has Zero withholding times, contact our Vets at Vets1laser to discuss your interest.
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Laser Spotlight on Hot-spots/Pyotraumatic /Acute Moist Dermatitis.
Image courtesy of Dr Amy Schnedeker.
The opinions expressed here below are solely those of Vets1laser.com and not attributable to any other individual.
The ever-increasing emphasis on the need to minimize antibiotics use to guard against disturbance of the balance of the skin microbiome-let alone with the global class actions now being brought against manufacturers of certain classes of antimicrobials for humans- means owners are becoming far less likely to comply with administering any antibiotics to their pets. Therefore, we as vets need to do as much as we can initially with these cases in the clinic so as to set the owner and the pet up for success at home.
I am always a big believer in good old-fashioned ‘elbow-grease’: of getting in and shaving and debriding and cleaning up these ‘hot-spot’ areas before starting any pharmacy. Too many dogs present as repeat sufferers that had no prevention nor proper decontamination done on earlier episodes, leaving their owners expecting their pet would go home on some heavy-duty medications for a protracted period. Not surprising, when the previous treatment focus had been solely on pharmacy.
In addition to the gentle debridement, given more and more Companion Pet Clinics now having Class 4 lasers in their treatment rooms, time to consider using this therapy machine on these skin presentations.
Use the ‘Off-Contact approach’ but don’t just treat the ‘angry’ area. Additionally, treat the peripheral tissue to assist in resolution of inflammation. Treating beyond the lesion boundaries decreases the levels of inflammatory tissue markers swamping the lesion and helps prevent the local nociceptors from firing furiously; which would then have only worsened both the self-inflected trauma and the overall visual presentation.
I was having this discussion with a very eminent respected Emeritus professor of Dermatology who quite correctly made the additional valid point of needing with Golden Ret breeds (GRB)to ‘remember that the AMD in the golden retriever, particularly on the face/neck/head, may not be pyotraumatic but rather a manifestation of superficial bacterial pyoderma. This is a very valid point about specific breeds and the bacterial aspect as some presentations may or may not need antibiosis.
However, it is precisely because of the bacterial component of the disease complex that makes me even more determined to encourage vets who have Red/NIR wavelength machines, regardless of the maker or brand, to expand the vet’s mindset to start using their Class 4 laser machines on cases like Hot spots, etc. not just on pain and joint issues.
It’s important to remember that different wavelengths have different effects on bacteria, viruses, etc. Some wavelengths will indiscriminately sterilize the entire treatment area; a result that one doesn’t always desire. Class 4 Red /NIR machines don’t sterilize a site, these wavelengths don’t directly kill bacteria as the main target is mitochondria, which bacteria don’t contain. Therefore, one is less concerned about wiping out the microbiome with these wavelengths, whilst still getting an antibacterial effect due to improved intrinsic signaling.
In applying Laser/PBMT to these presentations, dependance on the client’s home compliance effort is reduced, the treatment will assist with a reduction in pain and self-trauma and hence a speedier recovery for the patient, so a win-win for all.
The more presentations that are highlighted as valid for non-drug treatment options, the more we can move away from blanket destruction of the microbiome by polypharmacy and instead, support the body to recalibrate the issue back to a healthier balance.
PBMT won’t replace antibiotic therapy where it is needed, but it will eliminate a host of cases where antibiotics might have been unnecessarily dispensed.
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The on-contact technique does not mean you need to ‘dent’ the patient with the pressure you apply.
We have personally applied 1000s of laser sessions to pets with the Vets1laser heads shown, all with tremendous overall success and yet have never ever needed to apply more than the lightest of contact to achieve treatment success.
PBMT is a photochemical process, it is not a physical massage and it is not a physically uncomfortable therapy.
The technique is done at a specific rate: not super fast and not hovering over the one site. If you have not been taught about speed, direction and grid lines, then ask your own laser company to improve their training to you.
If your patients are resenting the laser when you are using it, then most likely it is operator technique i.e You that is at fault.
Too often we see these sad videos of laser headpieces- from a variety of laser companies being applied to the pet’s body with what amounts to brute force.
To apply laser, one is not ploughing through the animal’s muscles making deep furrows.
Aside from the fact the animal is not an equal player in such a process, unable to call stop if the force applied is too great-there is simply no need for such force to be applied through the end of a good laser therapy head.
If you do have to apply such force for your laser machine head, rethink what you are using.
As like most situations in Vet Med; Its Rarely about Brute Force and Always about Technique
To see an example gentle low stress on contact technique-watch Dr Mark in this video :https://vimeo.com/435250700?share=copy
To see a correct off-contact technique, see Part 1 of our ‘Glide’ Blog Posts
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The “I’m Not bothered” attitude about the pet wearing proper eye protection in a laser session is simply not acceptable.
This is a Safety Issue: You don’t get to ignore the rules.
There are NO situations where it is acceptable for a laser machine to be in use, yet for the animal (or for that matter, any of the humans around that machine) not to be wearing certified protective eye shields.
Eye safety is not negotiable.
I see far too many social media posts of animals not wearing protective goggles or at least a protective shield.
If the animal doesn’t accept/fit the laser googles-which is very rare, then you should be using the range of eye protection alternatives that your laser supplier informed you about.
All humans in the optical hazard zone must wear eye protection as well. Again, there are too many social media laser posts showing humans either not wearing eye protection or the glasses sitting halfway down their face.
The glasses must be a snug fit and remain so throughout the session.
Given that the optical hazard zone for some other brand laser machines can be up to 15 metres, the potential for something to go wrong and cause significant optical injury to your co-workers is such that the number of people in the treatment zone is strictly limited to the number of safety glasses you can provide.
A Big Thank you to Tammy and Cleo and Waterwalkies for modelling The correct (and an incorrect way) for our veterinary patients to wear the safety googles.
Laser emissions in the 810/980nm range are NOT visible to the human eye so be aware of that risk. That is why the red guide emission light is usually at 650nm, which is visible. Light entering the eye from a collimated beam in the retinal hazard zone area is concentrated by a factor of 100,000 times when it strikes the retina so even a low-power beam is a concern. If the eye is not focused at a distance or if the laser light has been reflected off diffuse surfaces, this hazard is greatly diminished, but can still be very dangerous especially as we don’t blink fast enough to stop the damage from Laser.
The eye will focus a 400-1400 wavelength beam to a very small spot.
A 1mw beam gives a retinal irradiance on the spot of 1200w/cm2.
Looking at the Sun only gives 10/w/cm2.
Laser machines can be demonstrated in the Off-Mode or Safety Mode: which is how Laser companies can display at conferences etc. This means a knowledgeable salesperson can allow you to handle the machine and try out various steps on the many preset programs without harm before you buy. If a Laser Rep doesn’t know how to allow you to do this, be concerned. A Laser salesperson can demonstrate a machine running in full operation mode in your clinic so as to perform a treatment session on one of your patients.
A knowledgeable salesperson will never start nor run any treatment session until everyone in the room, including the pet, is wearing wavelength-specific glasses or eye shields. If the salesperson does not insist on this safety approach, be so very concerned to the point of cancelling your demo.
Rest assured none of the above appalling dangerous behaviour is ever something that we would allow to occur in a Vets1laser demonstration.
However, If any of the above had happened with your laser demo from another company that has left you unsure about Laser therapy etc., then please do, as some of our newest most wonderful clients have done, and contact Dr. Aine Seavers or Dr. Mark Weingarth. Our Vets1laser Veterinarians will be more than happy to safely and expertly walk you through all the steps of understanding and implementing laser therapy for your particular practice set-up.
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Whilst Laser therapy per se doesn’t cause damage or worsen an injury, a human operator with poor technique will do damage.Views: 3
Ditch the Dress-ups-no matter how cute the patient might look.
When it comes to laser therapy, it’s all about ditching the patient’s drapes, the dressings, and the dress-ups for the duration of the therapy session.
The Grothuss-Draper Principle states that only light which is absorbed by a system can bring about a photochemical reaction. Energy directed at the patient’s body through the material will be wasted as there are no photoreceptors in the material for a biological effect to be caused by the light. The material may neutralise the light but equally, if the material is metallic or shiny, it could dangerously reflect the laser light. Either way, energy will be lost and treatment outcomes will be suboptimal.
Please remove clothing, bandages, and casts before attempting to apply PBM therapy to that area.
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Acute Pain is a Vital life-saving Signal: Chronic Pain is a Vindictive life-damaging Signal
As a profession, we must be as exacting as possible to prevent sustained or chronic pain.
The Philosophy of recognising the issues of Neuropathic and/or Chronic pain and working to prevent or re-calibrate the response to prevent chronic pain can be as life-changing and often as life-saving as other therapeutic interventions. We must therefore be proactive and pre-emptive in our application of pain relief.
Pain is a multi-step process so Pain relief, therefore, must be multi-modal: but multi-modal must not mean only multi-drug therapy. If, as a profession, we are going to have multimodal pain management within a ‘Standard of Care,’ then that care must include non-pharmaceutical interventions. PBM may not be a primary chemical or a pharmaceutical drug, but for many PBMT is regarded 1,2 as a ‘Drug-Therapy Equivalent.’
PBM is a scientifically, down to the micro-cellular levels, proven analgesia modality and hence is a powerful tool to arrest and suppress pain and to ward off chronic pain.
PBMT elicits the same end effects as a mainstream drug therapy by impacting the inflammatory cascade at similar points i.e., decrease in COX2 and Bradykinin levels etc., but achieves that result cua improved intrinsic anti-inflammatory signalling that is generated by better cell metabolism and improved microcirculation at the level of the injured tissue.
PBMT is easily woven into existing pain protocols and should be an absolute ‘Requirement of Care,’ not given consideration as an alternative only if
a case fails to respond to previous standards of care.
Neuropathic pain.
We have not paid enough attention to Neuropathic pain/Allodynia in our vet patients. “Pain is not just about the pain you feel, but also about how that pain makes you feel…” The brain ‘dresses’ and then ‘expresses’ that pain uniquely in each individual.
As a survivor of chronic pain, I am keen to prevent as many veterinary patients from progressing into a chronic or neuropathic pain scenario. The freedom I get, when PBM releases me from the cage of chronic pain is a freedom that we as Vets should be offering to our patients. The Joy I see PBM therapy bring my veterinary patients- now freed from the virtual cage of pain that is life with unresolved pain-has converted me from a sceptic to an avid proponent of this pain management therapy tool.
We have excused our neglect of considering neuropathic pain in our vet patients as neuropathic pain being a self-reporting condition, so then animals can’t self-report.I disagree. Animals do report back to us that they have neuropathic pain. All it requires to identify neuropathic pain is to have an observing and informed mind and suddenly the ‘clinically silent’ presenting case is actually screaming from the roof-tops that it is registering pain, especially allodynia. The animal that: is no longer lame, but still withdraws from contact or inexplicably guards one part of its body, a sweet animal becoming aggressive, a confident animal suddenly fleeing from the lightest touch, an animal who verbalises when a wind blows on its skin or if a blanket is placed on an external body part, these animals are flagging their allodynia
PBM induces normalisation of the microcirculation and interrupts the vicious cycle that originates develops, winds up and maintains pain. Normal physiological conditions of the tissue are then restored which means we have given the patient a head-start in reducing the risk of chronic or neuropathic pain.
As clinicians, to be serious about pain relief, we must expand our therapeutic tools; We have to move beyond the drug cupboard if we are serious about pain relief.
PBM treatment modality is a powerful ally in the drive to suppress pain and ward off chronic pain. If you are uncompromising about pain relief, it the time to add PBM therapy to your therapeutic armoury.
At Vets1Laser, we are passionate about putting Veterinarians at the forefront of Laser /PBM therapy.
Contact Dr Aine at [email protected] to share and discuss any thoughts or knowledge on all things Laser.only
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Hi Everyone.
I have had a few people ask me my opinion on the Dr Lisa Miller’s paper on PBM for Canine Degenerative Myelopathy.
The paper, one of many reviewed by Drs Millis & Bergh, was given this accurate if rather terse summary:
‘A study of laser use in treating degenerative myelopathy did not have a control group (comparison to a historical control group was used), had other confounding factors that may have influenced the results, and the laser dose used to compare Class III and Class IV lasers was not the same. The risk of bias for the study came in as high.
In fairness to the paper, despite it being from a competitor company-I don’t think we should dismiss Dr Miller’s findings based on the above reasons.
To put the comments into context: Drs Millis & Bergh had undertaken a systematic literature review in general for PBMT and found gaps in the scientific documentation. Conflicting study results and unclear application for clinical use are explained by the wide variety of treatment parameters used in the analysed studies, such as wavelength, laser class, dose, and effect, as well as the frequency and duration of treatment. Some beneficial effects have been reported during treatment with light therapy; however, the published studies also have limited scientific quality regarding these therapies, with a high or moderate risk of bias. Although some beneficial effects were reported for light therapy, the studies also had limited scientific quality regarding these therapies, with a high or moderate risk of bias.
In general, I would have to agree with Dr Millis and Dr Bergh’s findings on most of the clinical papers out there in the PBMT field. The standard of publishing for PBMT is nothing like the ringer that the AVJ or EJFM etc puts you through to get a veterinary paper published with them.
Pure Science Research PBM papers focused at the cellular level, however, do tend to hit a higher standard.
So where does that leave us with Dr Miller’s paper?
1)Tacit Knowledge: What you know from being in the field, not from a textbook.
Our own knowledge of using our PBM machine on German Shepherd Myelopathy is that the therapy does work. The therapy should be added as an adjunct therapy-it doesn’t replace Megaderm, Denosyl, NSAIDS, Rehab, etc but PBMT alone, delivers about 70% of the total successful response.
2)Scientific Knowledge.
We know CDM disease is a mitochondrial-based disease with superoxide dismutase1 mutation being the fault line.
We know PBMT targets mitochondria very efficiently.
We know muscles and nerves have a high mitochondrial load.
Therefore PBM therapy has a natural scientific ‘in’ or ‘back door’ to this disease.
Conclusion. The findings of Dr Miller’s paper are worthy of application in general practice.
Reading list.
et al . PMID: 26432396 DOI: 10.1016/j.zool.2015.09.003
Isabel Hervias et al . Muscle Nerve 2006 May;33(5):598-608. PMID: 16372325 DOI: 10.1002/mus.20489
Natalia Servetto et al lhttps://doi.org/10.1002/lsm.20910
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Don’t get Tunnel Vision.
Laser therapy is so much more than an anti-inflammatory tool. Rather than ask “What can I use laser on?”; take a moment to consider “What can’t I use laser for?”
One then very quickly realises there are very few presentations that laser therapy can’t be added on as an adjunct therapy.
From reducing action potential in nerves to decreasing muscle spasms, trigger points, and tissue oedema, your laser therapy machine can be factored into minor-major disease and injury presentations.
Enjoy the versatility of this non-invasive modality, that is without peer in terms of capital equipment expenditure and client/veterinarian/pet benefit.
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