Equine Laser therapy has brought about a total revolution in the veterinary sciences related to equine animals such as horses. In the last few decades, it has spread like wildfire throughout the animal medical departments of the world.
Now many people have become interested in equine laser therapy and are asking the question – “How does equine laser therapy reduce pain?” In this article, we will make an attempt to provide a satisfactory answer to this question.
Things to know about pain and inflammation –
1. Joint inflammation –
Inflammation refers to the phenomenon which occurs on a horse’s skin due to the presence of a foreign object in the horse’s body. When a foreign object comes into contact with a horse’s body or enters into the horse’s body it triggers a response in the immune system of the horse. This response can only be reversed by laser therapy equipment.
The immune system of the horse responds by turning the affected area of the horse’s body red or green in color. Very often, the affected area swells up too and starts to itch violently. The horse suffers a lot of material misery as a result of this reaction. It is unable to get rid of this material misery in any way or alleviate it to the slightest extent because it lacks hands and fingers with which it can scratch at the itching.
Equine laser therapy helps mightily in alleviating this swelling and itching of the horse’s body. All inflammation in the horse’s body practically disappears as soon as laser therapy equipment is used to treat it.
The mechanism of inflammation is this – the immune system of the horse’s body responds to the presence of the foreign object by releasing white blood cells in the area where the foreign object is present. These white blood cells cause the skin of the horse to turn red or green and also cause a lot of itching and irritation on the skin.
Some white blood cells leak into the affected body parts of the horse causing the formation of pus which causes the skin of the horse to swell up. What equine laser therapy does is that it not only makes the itching and irritation fade away but it also reduces the swelling. This allows the veterinarian to clean the pus from the affected body parts.
2. Equine back pain –
Equine back pain is a very common problem faced by horses all around the world. When this problem occurs with a horse they find it very difficult to carry out their day-to-day tasks and their basic motor functions are impaired to a high degree. Thus equine back pain can be a very debilitating problem for horses. It is best to treat it as soon as possible with the help of laser therapy equipment.
There can be many causes of equine back pain and some of them are really hard to detect. Sometimes it occurs because the muscles of the horse have become stiff. This can happen due to both too little exercise as well as too much exercise. The remedy for this is relatively simple. One can assign a trainer whose duty it is to rub the horse down as frequently as possible.
But sometimes the cause is not as simple or as easy to detect. Sometimes the saddle of the horse may be too tight. Often stablehands and jockeys don’t take as much care as they should while strapping on the saddle of a horse and cinch it so tightly that the poor horse feels suffocated and its back becomes twisted unnaturally.
Another cause is that sometimes the bridle in the horse’s mouth is wound up too tightly. Not only does this cause pain to the horse and hurt its mouth badly, but it also makes the back of the horse arch unnaturally. To compound the problem, oftentimes the jockeys or the riders of the horse pull the bridle in the horse’s mouth so savagely that the horse’s mouth starts frothing and foam starts being produced in it. Even equine laser therapy can not reverse the damage that this does to the horse’s mouth.
Another cause is that sometimes the bones of the horse grow too fast compared to the rest of its body. This mismatch in growth causes friction in the horse’s back which leads to equine back pain. All this stress and pressure on the back of the horse produces large amounts of pain in it. In many cases, the pain grows so much that the horse finds it absolutely intolerable and starts behaving madly or starts attacking those present around it.
Equine laser therapy works by sending light pulses of laser light into the affected area. This constitutes a kind of a light-based massage that works wonders and is much more effective than any physical massage or rubdown by a trainer could ever be. This is because the laser light can reach under the skin of the horse and can provide relief to the agonized muscles of the horse directly.
