Can the Therapy Laser heal wounds?  1-29-13

I will not leave you in suspense. Of course it can...or I obviously would not be posting this. 
When we were in Michigan, we thought we were big time dog lovers. We had to be...our hyper active dog was yippy, quirky, and extremely obnoxious. But as we got to know people in Sarasota, we discovered that we were just in "the middle of the pack." Two or three dog families are often the norm. Some of our clients spend enough on vet bills to feed a developing nation. One client named Patti has three dogs of her own and a total of SEVEN rescue dogs in various stages of healing or out placement. 
One of these rescue dogs is Sugar. Sugar is about 8 and is the most people friendly Lab mix I have ever met. I shall not delve into Sugar's numerous maladies or issues at this time, but among them was a severe open would on her foreleg that would not heal and could not be stitched together. It was bright pink and watery and not for the sqeamish. The wound remained open for a year despite different salves and medications and gave poor Sugar a pronounced limp.

Patti has brought Sugar in to see me on six different occasions. Her first laser wound treatment lasted 8 minutes. On ensuing visits we gradually increased the treatment time to 14 minutes. Sugar was not thrilled with the idea of being hoisted up onto my desk, but Patti and I spent much of each session explaining the benefits of the painless laser treatments and Sugar began to accept it as her lot. After two treatments the wound began to scab up at the narrowest point. After the fifth treatment, the entire wound had begun to fill in and heal. I offer the pic below as proof.

Needless to say, Sugar's limp is far less noticable and she is delighted with the results thus far. What is the next step? Patti and I intend to wait for the scabs to fall off and the new skin beneath to appear. The next laser treatments will not be for another month or two. The new objective will be to try to stimulate the re-growth of fur! Stay tuned.         

Is the dog still alive? 1-18-13

Many regular readers will recall occasional posts about our dog. Her name is Sasha...and she is still alive! She is of course very old by now---with luck she will be 12 in April. When one factors in her weight (93 pounds) and the fact that, in spite of being a rescue dog, she is a purebred from a breed that is not known for particularly long lives---she is doing remarkably well. In fact, according to a book called Good Old Dog written by the Vets at Tufts University, her age should be multiplied by 8 years instead of the usual 7. This would result in a physical age of about 92 years! Needless to say, she is slowing down a great deal. Her arthritis is kept in check with a combination of Meloxicam, Fish Oil, massage, and low level laser therapy. So do we all need proof that she is still alive? Below is a very recent pic.

Does this dog look dead to
you? Of course not!

Perhaps the above pic is not absolute proof---until one asks why we would keep a huge stuffed animal underfoot during business hours. 
Sasha still comes to work here at the studio for at least 6 shifts per week (out of a possible 11...not too shabby.) Granted she is slowing down a bit, although as of late she has been making subtle demands for more pay. Her contention is that now that we have two doors (a front and a rear) for clients to enter through she deserves DOUBLE pay. Needless to say management here is in disagreement but we shall continue to negotiate with her in good faith and hopefully arrive at some compromise. Her capabilities as a guard dog were never well-honed, but lately salesmen have been slipping past her left and right. We are also going to require some sort of contribution from her toward her pension fund as we cannot continue to bear the entire cost by ourselves.