Fort Wayne Pet Hospital K Laser Success: August 2020

This trooper of a dog had a run in with a lawnmower 😲😲

He was given a grim prognosis to save the leg without very expensive and un-guaranteed orthopedic surgical intervention at another practice. Amputation was the option they were facing, but they didn't want to give up on his healing ability. They contacted us and the doctors and staff were up to the challenge. Dr Seth evaluated it and gave it a go.

This pup had 2 major lacerations on his wrist and paw, as well as fractured carpal bones. We cleaned the wounds and closed them with suture/staples. To help stabilize the fractured bones we placed a splint but left a window to be able to utilize the speed healing power of laser light therapy.

The first images were on April 13th. The final laser picture was on May 27th. The most recent picture was July 28th. We did a total of 12 lasers.

APRIL 13

Fractures can be seen on the bottom 3 long bones of the "hand"

You can see that there is a deep, open gash that had fractured 3 of the carpal bones. The medial (most inside) carpal bone was unfractured and acted as a internal splint.

For the sake of practicality and finances - the fractured bones were not pinned, just flushed. Sutures were used to close the SQ fascia and skin.

There was also a laceration around the large pad of the same foot - as seen at the bottom of the image.

He was a fantastic boy! Was very sensitive and touchy with the leg at first but was happy to have us work with it as time went on.

A spoon splint was placed and a "window" was left for the major wound/fracture site so laser therapy could still be utilized while keeping stability for healing.

APRIL 15 - Laser #2

As you could see it was a hard life getting lasers......

APRIL 17 - Laser #3

He managed to get the splint and bandaging wet - so we sedated and took it all off to clean and rebandage.

APRIL 22 - Laser # 5 - Stitches removed from main site.

APRIL 27 - Laser #7

Definite granulation tissue forming along with healing discharge.

You can see in the 2 week x-ray update - still plenty of bone healing to take place, but definitely not losing any ground!

APRIL 29 - Laser #8

Wet bandage again - so we removed it again - FANTASTIC wound healing taking place. Staples were removed from secondary laceration site by pad. Even though there wasn't direct laser therapy on this site except for when the splint was off - the 3 lasers previously and the continued laser therapy drawing oxygenation and increased blood flow to the area benefited this site.