Hi, First of all I feel terribly guilty posting a fresh question having hardly responded to anyone else's posts in the past month or so - it's been a hectic time since Christmas here, with numerous vet visits not helping, but here goes... Monty has moderate HD in left hip diagnosed at 6 months last august - this is apparently now the least of our problems as (finally) following a referral to a specialist clinic he also has big elbow problems. He has had a full once-over from a physio vet, gait analysis, etc, who has put him on a course of six laser treatments, with possibly 1 per fortnight to follow. We can claim back through insurance, but am just wondering of anyone has any good experience of this working? He has done 4 of 6 treatments now with no obvious changes to his stiffness /clicking. He's due for another full set of xrays next week - the ones last year only showed up HD not ED - although we, and other locum vets / nurses commented that they thought there was a front leg issue back then - the physio vet is pushing for a CT scan, (upwards of £1500?) our own vet is saying we should use our insurance allowance wisely and stick with x rays for now - which is what we are going with in the short term. Whatever the xrays show, we will deal with - our physio vet is guessing he has different types of ED in each leg - but suggests hydrotherapy once a full diagnosis is available I guess it's about knowing what treatment to go with in terms of our insurance, offset against how much benefit it will bring - Monty's monthly cartrophen, daily nutriquin supplements and previcox anti inflammatories come to nearly £1,000 an year, before any other phsyio treatment or xrays, we have £4,000 vets fees available on our insurance which now seems miserly - I'm not making this post about the cost of treatment, but just wondering, if we have to choose between treatments, which is best in other people's experience? I only want to do the best for him but feel caught in the middle of our own vet being cautionary and our physio vet lining him up for all sorts of treatments which might be costly and not necessarily guarantee an improvement in his condition.
Re: Laser treatment - any good experiences? Many sympathies....the cost of these treatments can be astronomical. My boy had a cruciate repair and for his recovery he went to Greyfriars. http://greyfriarsrehab.co.uk/what-we-do It's a very sad fact, that Greyfriars say by the time people get to them, the insurance cover is long gone... I was lucky, and had taken an insurance policy for the maximum amount of lifetime cover, and an extra allowance for complementary treatments (physio, hydro etc - this is rarely lifetime cover so you should check your policy) but with a whopping great excess so it's no good for more routine things. The excess I paid was trivial compared to the total cost of his treatment. He had physio, hydro, massage and laser treatment as part of his plan. I'd buy them all again (budget allowing) but if I had to choose, I'd go for the hydrotherapy. At Greyfriars they were passionate about measuring the results of the treatment they used (using gait analysis and other techniques) and I believe they were all beneficial to some extent. But the hydro was the most effective. I see now that Greyfriars have an accupunture service, which I didn't use but they were testing while I was there, and they thought the results were exciting. It was proper Hydrotherapy though, not just a swim in a heated pool. He had three people to run every session in the water treadmill.... Here he is...(bit of a rubbish pic snapped on a phone) oh, so glad it's all behind us, he's as fit as a fiddle now. motoring along now by JulieTandCharlie, on Flickr
Re: Laser treatment - any good experiences? Julie that's a great pic! Yes, our physio vet has the same hydro treadmill, she's keen to use this on him, but sensibly wants to see what the new x-rays show up on his elbow before we embark on a new programme. I'd actually googled greyfriars from one of your previous posts, fortunately our own physio vet (for want of a distinction between her and our regular vet) offers similar therapies, and fortunately only 30 mins drive away. With petplan we do have an annual £1k allowance for complementary therapies per year, but I don't think laser therapy comes under this, so is coming out of the annual £4k vet treatment allowance, which is for life, but now seems to have to stretch a long way. And we would certainly put extra towards his treatment if we were approaching a 'cure' - we have had a 'fusing' technique mentioned to us, where there is no flex between the shoulder and ankle, I forget the procedural name, it gives them a terrible gait but removes pain . With both of us having had human acupuncture in the last 5 years with no good effect we might hold fire on Monty...!
Re: Laser treatment - any good experiences? Very best of luck with it all, you sound like you have a good vet, anyway. [quote author=leejane link=topic=9930.msg144236#msg144236 date=1424209462] With both of us having had human acupuncture in the last 5 years with no good effect we might hold fire on Monty...! [/quote] Well, I think the traditional beliefs around accupunture (Qi life force and all that) are pretty mad..however, there is scientific evidence that Western accupunture works by stimulating nerves in muscle tissue to produce pain-relieving endorphins, and there is evidence that it works for chronic lower back pain, and some evidence that acupuncture works for neck pain. It's interesting to use it on dogs, as the results can only be assessed by physical improvement, and there is some evidence it can help in a pain relief programme. That said, I'd go for other treatments first, too.
