It’s a typical pet problem; maybe you notice a little limp, or your pet has some trouble getting out of bed after a nap, or your animal just isn’t as active as he or she used to be. These signs, as well as many others, point to osteoarthritis. While it’s an uncomfortable condition (any human with arthritis can attest to that), it’s also very common and very treatable.
Many vets will prescribe non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to relieve pain, and others will recommend herbal supplements, acupuncture, cold laser therapy or other alternative treatments. A new option available to vets is targeted pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (tPEMF), administered exclusively by the Assisi Loop.
The Assisi Loop is a non-pharmaceutical and non-invasive clinical solution for various issues inflammatory in nature – including arthritis.
tPEMF technology has been shown in clinical trials (both on humans and animals) to be very effective in the treatment of chronic osteoarthritis.
To add a (doggie) face to the clinical study data, Assisi features a current Assisi Loop user – Fred, a terrier mix from Colorado. His life has been improved by the Assisi Loop, and we’re pleased to share his story. Read more about the Assisi Loop and arthritis here.
A note from Fred’s vet: Dr. Lisa Lancaster of Denver, CO
Fred is a 17-year-old m/n terrier mix. Fred has osteoarthritis in multiple limbs and along his spine. The radiographs showed the most advanced degenerative changes were in his left elbow, and Fred’s lameness is most pronounced in that limb. Before using the Loop, Fred acted depressed and he had stopped playing with toys and he was limiting his interaction with the other dogs in the household. Fred was receiving medications to treat pain and inflammation, but this was not enough to keep him comfortable. His Loop treatments started at 3 times per day for 2 weeks, then 2 times per day for a week, then once a day. By that second week, Fred was showing improvements in quality of life: he was more playful, more interactive, and more willing to move. His lameness did not go away, but his comfort level was significantly better.
“I call him the energizer bunny,” Kris Warner says of her little dog, Fred. She got him when he was 2 or 3 years old, and he has just been a spritely, healthy dog his entire life – until February 2014, when Fred was about 17 years old, at which time he developed a limp in his front left leg. It was diagnosed as osteoarthritis. Kris also started noticing some significant changes in his behavior.
“It kind of sneaks up on you,” Kris says. “It’s the kind of thing where you don’t really realize how much pain you’re in until you get out of pain. He was kind of isolating himself from the other dogs, and normally when I’d go to feed them he’d be right in there, but he’d been hanging back for a while.”
Fred’s vet, Dr. Lisa Lancaster, a mobile vet in the Denver area, had a new treatment on her radar – namely, the Assisi Loop. She needed a case to try out this new technology on, and Fred was a perfect candidate since he hadn’t received any other treatment for his arthritis. For added protection from the effects of arthritis, he was started on tramadol (a painkiller) and glucosamine at the same time, but the Loop was his main mode of treatment.
“We used it for 45 days, 3 times a day, and it seemed to make a pretty big difference for him,” Kris says. “He was hobbling around the house all the time previous to that. What I notice now is he’s pretty lame his first couple steps when he gets up, but if you didn’t know that he had such significant [arthritis] in his elbow, you’d probably have a hard time telling… The reason I believe that it works is that I’d taken him up to my other place in Grand Junction, and I forgot to bring the Loop with me. I noticed a pretty significant decline over a couple of days of not using it, versus getting back in here and using it again.”
Once treatment with the Loop started, Kris saw a huge difference in her dog. “When some of the other dogs are rough-housing, he’ll run over and bark at them, like, ‘Knock it off!’ – and when it’s time to eat, he jumps around like he’s insane. He carries his bone around the house again, which he hadn’t been doing for a while. You don’t notice the individuals when they stop doing stuff, until they start doing it again.”
These days, Fred still happily uses his Loop, as well as tramadol, gabapentin, glucosamine, and Zyflamend. He’s still a little Energizer Bunny, and the Loop has helped keep him comfortable – despite Kris’s busy schedule as a farrier who is on the road visiting clients all day, every day.
Having a treatment that can be done at home is “a huge advantage,” Kris says. “If I have to run over to [Dr. Lancaster’s] office, with my hours and her hours, it gets pretty much impossible. When I have a dog that’s struggling, I feel like I have something I can do for him before I get to her. It gives me something to do in the interim, and a lot of times it seems like it’s enough. It’s nice to be able to have that option.”
Furthermore, “if you think about the 150 treatments that you can get, I think cost-wise, it’s pretty cost-efficient over a lot of stuff,” Kris says. “If you look at the cost of putting your dog in a car and having to drive it to an appointment versus being able to do stuff at home, I think it’s pretty well-priced. If people look at the big picture, they’ll realize they’re getting a good deal. For what I’ve seen in the three dogs I’ve tried it on, I’d be sold on it.”
More from Dr. Lisa Lancaster:
In older patients with advanced degenerative joint disease, they may continue to limp, but the main goal is to improve quality of life. We are finding that the Loop helps with this, and the lack of side effects makes it so easy to try. Because the Loop can safely be added to any multimodal pain protocol, I encourage all of my clients to consider it. Sometimes we find we can lower the doses of other medication, or even wean them off medication entirely if the Loop continues to be used.
Some people initially hesitate because of the purchase price, but once they see results, and compare the daily cost of the Loop to the daily cost of pain meds, they realize it is actually a great deal!