I had another one of those this week. My client turned up very worried because the damaged tendon in her dog’s front leg was starting to contract. The carpus (wrist) wasn’t able to stretch out.
To laser or not to laser
To cut a long story short. The wrist was initially put in a cast to allow it to partially heal. Once out of the cast, we started some rehabilitation and laser therapy. The owner borrowed my home laser for one month. At the end of the month she thought it had helped so I encouraged her to buy her own. Apparently it was going well until another practitioner advised the family that research showed that home lasers were not powerful enough and not to bother using it. The story she recounted seemed to contradict this.
The tendon improved while the laser was being used. When the laser was stopped, the tendon became worse. I think there’s a strong case of cause and effect here in the laser’s favour. Needless to say the home laser is back in use again but only after we had to rescue the tendon with some prolotherapy (that’s for the next blog!).
The good oil
When cbd (cannabinoids) was first legalised (and even before), the medical and veterinary world reacted with ridicule, disbelief and lots of negativity. It has slowly become more acceptable as the positive stories and research are shared. At a recent scout camp in Switzerland, I was amazed to find cannabis ice tea in all the railway station vending machines. It goes to show…Sadly I wasn’t able to sample the product as Scouts Australia has a no drugs policy. Crazily, Roundup is still acceptable in Australia and banned in most of Europe. I know which one I would rather try.
The unknown
This is quite a common issue that I face. Integrative and holistic veterinarians often use treatment methods that mainstream medicine are not familiar with. I think our society is programmed to think that if something is unknown, it must be dangerous and avoided at all cost. It’s fear of the unknown. Don’t even get me started about acupuncture.
A few years ago, I suggested that a family member who suffers from depression should ask her doctor about taking some cbd oil. It was already legalised by then. Her doctors’ responses were that they had no experience with it and didn’t think it was a good idea. We recently found an integrative doctor who was happy to prescribe the cbd oil and it is already working well. Sadly, it has meant an extra few years of suffering that could have been avoided.
Now that I’ve got it off my chest and had had my little rant, I can look forward to the next integrative veterinary conference in a fortnight.