Bowzer is a rescue pup with a gentle disposition. He’s on the road to recovery after tearing his ACL. And at the momen, he’s making strides, even if he doesn’t seem to think he is. At the Animal Wellness Center of the Eastern Shore, which is under the direction of Dr. Jaclyn Wolinski, there are plenty of strides being made in helping improve the quality of life for pets.
“Most of our clients really feel like the pets are part of the family and they want to offer them everything that they have at their fingertips,” Wolinski said.
A lot has changed over the past few years in terms of what’s available for veterinary care.
Some of the newest treatments include laser therapy, a treatment for dogs with hind-end pain, arthritis, muscle spasms or just general mobility issues.
“The laser penetrates the tissue to different levels and brings blood flow and circulation and basically supports and stimulates the body’s natural healing,” Wolinski said.
On Bowzer, laser therapy focuses mostly on that surgically-repaired ACL. Goggles protect his vision, so looking cool is just a side effect. Then there’s something called an Assisi loop, a device that creates an electro-magnetic field.
“That electromagnetic field actually resonates with the cells energy, brings blood flow, speeds healing, toxin release and provides pain relief without medication,” Wolinski said. “The patient I had this morning isn’t eating and she’s painful and difficult to medicate, so we tried this as a pain therapy and so hopefully if she feels better she will want to eat and we can get other medications in her.”
Wolinksi said one of the more controversial new treatments is cannabis for pets. But the controversy comes more from stigma than reality. She said cannabis for pets is not medical marijuana.
“”bviously with the human side of it with medical marijuana gaining popularity, it’s come out more so,” Wolinski said. “It’s hemp-based, there’s no THC in it, there’s no high but we have all the of those other CBD’s, cannabidials and all those other plant chemicals that are really good arthritis pain relief cancer therapy.”
The reality is that a dog’s lifespan isn’t a human’s. But one look at Bowzer and it’s easy to understand why anyone would have a tough time letting go. Not that bowzer is going anywhere anytime soon because he’s still pretty young.
But the medical advancements that have been made can add time to a pet’s life. More than that though: they make the senior years just a little bit easier.
“Caught early enough with still a lot of ammunition in our back pockets, we can extend life,” Wolinski said. “If we catch it late then we’re talking more quality.”
And really, it’s quality of life that matters most, even if Bowzer thinks it’s food.
Wolinski said anything that can be done with humans, can in theory be done with pets. So there’s no telling what advancements may come down the road.
