Laser Therapy

At Greenway Pet Clinic, we are constantly striving to provide our patients with the best and latest in treatment and care, so recently we have purchased a Therapeutic Laser. Therapeutic Lasers have been proven in clinical studies to help alleviate pain and inflammation, reduce swelling, and stimulate nerve regeneration and cells involved in tissue repair.

Therapeutic Lasers work by emitting a wavelength of light which penetrates deep into the tissues. This stimulates the tissue at the cellular level. Depending on the cell type, this in turn will cause: pain relief, reduction of inflammation, accelerated tissue repair and cell growth, improved circulation, reduced scar tissue, improved nerve function, accelerated wound healing, increased immune response and will stimulate acupuncture and trigger points.

The best news about Laser Therapy is that there are no side effects; it is non-painful and non-invasive. In some cases Laser Therapy may decrease or even eliminate the need for daily medication.

Some areas in which we will be using Laser Therapy are: Osteoarthritis, hip and elbow dysplasia, degenerative joint disease, skin disorders, acute and chronic ear infections, post operative healing, wound healing, snakebites, and after tooth extractions. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

If you are interested in this treatment modality for your pet and want more information, you are welcome to give us a call at the clinic, or visit the website for Companion Therapy Laser.

Regenerative Stem Cell Therapy

Vet-Stem or regenerative stem cell therapy is a process which uses your own animals’ natural healing cells from fat tissue. These stem cells are capable of turning into or differentiating into a variety of tissue types including tendon, ligament, bone, cartilage, and muscle and have been proven to reduce
pain and inflammation.

Stem cells or specifically mesenchymal stem cells are harvested from fat tissue. The fat tissue is sent to the Vet-Stem laboratory, where the stem cells are isolated and extra cells banked for future use. The cells are sent back to be injected into the areas of concern.

Current uses of stem cell therapy in dogs are:

1. Arthritis-hip, knee, elbow and shoulder joints.
2. Polyarthritis-multiple joints affected
3. Orthopedic/Soft tissue-tendon and ligament injuries
4. Post operative-hip, elbow, knee and shoulder surgeries to reduce inflammation, speed healing and decrease pain.

Certain instances where stem cell therapy may be helpful are: if your dog is no longer responding to NSAID therapy, if orthopedic surgery has been deemed not helpful, if there is polyarthritis, ligament or tendon injury, and if you are looking for a more natural and holistic approach to your pet’s therapy. Since these cells are harvested from your pet’s own tissue, rejection reactions do not occur.

It has been reported that approximately 80% of dogs have had a slight to significant response to stem cell therapy. The reported duration of effect is 3-24 months.

If you would like more information on regenerative stem cell therapy, feel free to contact us at the clinic, or visit the Vet-Stem website for animal owners.

Diagnostic Ultrasound

For nearly two years now, we have been providing cardiac and abdominal ultrasound for our patients. Ultrasound has helped us diagnose and more thoroughly understand the disease processes occurring in our veterinary patients.

Many people may be familiar with abdominal ultrasound when it is applied to human obstetrics (commonly called a sonogram). But most don’t understand how it works or what we are seeing on the screen. Ultrasound is a series of waves or echoes which penetrate tissue. These echoes appear as a grey scale on the monitor. Depending on the density of the organ you are looking at, these echo waves will either penetrate through, bounce off, or anything in between. Fluid or fluid filled structures appear black because the echo waves pass easily through. Bone and air are impenetrable; the echo waves bounce off these structures and appear white on the screen. Everything else (liver, spleen, kidneys, intestine, urinary bladder) has an “echogenicity” between these. Once we become familiar with what normal abdominal organs look like on ultrasound, we can then use it to find what is abnormal.

Click to see larger image...

With ultrasound we can see what the inside of an organ looks like, and if there are any abnormalities like cysts or masses. These abnormalities can be measured for size and in some instances; an ultrasound guided fine needle aspirate can be done of these abnormalities to obtain a diagnosis. This usually requires a light sedation versus an exploratory abdominal surgery.

In the chest we can evaluate the heart. We can look at the heart’s size as well as its function. We can also see, with the use of color flow Doppler, insufficiencies of the valves of the heart. When we auscult a murmur with a stethoscope during a physical exam, most often this means that one of the valves of the heart is not closing or working properly. We can also measure the thickness of the walls of the heart, its contractility, and see any stenotic (narrowing) or septal defects (holes in the walls of the heart). It’s complicated, and the learning curve has been steep, but the information gathered is much more helpful than a chest radiograph alone. It is a great way to monitor those patients with known heart disease.

As you can see ultrasound has many applications. We can use it simply to get a sterile urine sample from your pet, or to help diagnose complicated diseases of the heart or abdominal organs. It has been a great diagnostic addition to our practice, one in which we used to have to refer our patients to referral centers for. If necessary, we can send the images we have obtained during an ultrasound procedure and have them evaluated by a board certified veterinary radiologist for a small additional fee.