Wound & Laser Therapy

Neala came to me close to a year ago. She and her cage mates had been found in a yard and she was sporting a wound. The wound had gone untreated for several months after she was found but was in surprisingly good shape.



I began using Quickderm and almost immediately, I noticed a change for the better. Shortly after, I began alternating the Quickderm with emu oil and again, I saw marked improvement. However, in the last couple of months, the wound stopped progressing, even growing a bit again and now we're at a stand still. The tissue is healthy and does not seem to cause her any discomfort. She has remained with her cage mates, they groom her and keep it clean but have not caused the wound to become worse.

Today marks Day One in a series of six (6) laser therapy treatments to see if we can get things jump started again. We go back tomorrow, then we'll spread the rest of them out over the next week and a half. I will take pictures as we go along to show what, if any, improvement there is.

Day One:

We've had two treatments so far and going in this afternoon for another. Five (5) days after we began treatments, I'm happy with the results thus far.

It looks much better today and has decreased in size.

Any updated pics on the other treatment results of the laser surgery on Neala? Was following this post and was hoping to see the finished treatment and wound totally healed up.
Thanks
Art

Hey Art. I've been remiss and need to post updated pictures. Neala's wound is not completely gone but it's very small now and is healing rather quickly. The skin has grown together now and the wound has been scabbed up for some time now, and continues to get smaller.

I'll get some new pics and update. Thanks so much for the reminder here. :)

Here's a picture taken about 3 weeks ago of Neala's wound. As you can see, it's still not gone. The others groom her from time to time and so it remains. But, it continues to get smaller.



I took this picture this morning..



As you can see, little by little it's disappearing. :) We have not been back in for laser therapy since the first round as it's just not necessary since the wound is going away now and has made great progress.

For those of us who have not had the Laser Therapy done on any gliders can you tell us how they do it please?

Looks great.

It's so quick and easy. The laser looks sort of like a pen and it has a light at the end of it which is the therapy itself. They very quickly run the light over the wound, back and forth so they don't stay in one place for any length of time (it can burn otherwise). It only takes a couple of minutes and they're done. The number of therapy sessions will depend on the size and depth of the wound. Neala went through six sessions. They typically do the first couple of sessions close to one another, within a day or two and then spread the others out to 3 or 4 days apart.

The most important thing if you're looking at laser therapy is to make sure that your vet is knowledgeable with the laser itself because if not, they can do more harm than good. If they're good and know what they're doing, the procedure is harmless and painless. They don't even have to take the glider out of their pouch - just let them sleep at the bottom and they can open up the pouch, hold it around the glider with the wound exposed and it's done.

More info on laser therapy treatment for those who want it
https://thesweetspot.forumotion.net/t226-laser-therapy-treatment

Thank you, Val. :)

5 months? I've never had a wound like that and I wish you all the very best that have had to deal with this. But is that normal to take that long to heal? I know it was pretty nasty, but 5 months?

We actually did laser therapy on my little 8 week oop joey that had ick and a tail amputation to see if it would help her (the tail, not ick) quit attacking her tail and amputation spot. And no it did not help my glider any, she still needed a 2nd amputation and MORE meds before she healed right. I guess laser therapy isn't for everyone. And with Abigail being the vet office guinea pig for the laser demonstration and it not working to what the vets expectations were....I guess it saved them thousands of dollars on equipment they didn't feel was necessary to buy.

Neala looks great! Many hugs to you and her for such a long road to recovery.

Yes, Sherri, for wounds that are both wide and deep, it can take many, many months for them to heal. I have had wounds here that took 10 months to heal, and one that took 26 months. It is not unusual in good, complete wound care. Even with humans and our ability to use wound vacs and other treatments on wounds, large, deep wounds can take months or years to heal. Most people think that a wound is a wound, but that is not the case. There are classifications of wounds and stages of wound healing, types of exudate/drainage (serous, purulent, sanguinous, etc) and complications that can be present (undermining, tunneling, damming, etc) that all impact time of healing. Little Neala had several complications and a fairly large wound. It is actually GREAT that she healed as fast as she did.

You are right - no one treatment works for everyone/glider. Laser therapy is one option. For some wounds, you have to use many different treatments in order to get full healing. For example, you may use Vetericyn initially, but find that it is not as effective on deep tissue wounds. So, you switch to Quickderm. That works great for a bit, but then healing seems to slow. You return to the vet and find that there is some build-up/damming at the edges of the wound, so you release the edges surgically and treat with antibiotic and Vetericyn again (because Vetericyn works best on fresh wounds) again. Then, that still doesn't work, so you go in for laser therapy and begin using emu oil to ensure the skin stays pliant. Finally, the wound is healed. This type of constant evaluation and modification of treatment plan is the methodology used by the best wound clinics in the world. I am lucky in that I work in a rehab department that has a large wound care clinic. I find wound treatment fascinating, so I go to all of their continuing education and learn as much as I can. I LOVE that we have so many treatment options for wounds in gliders now.

I'm sorry that laser therapy did not work for your baby. Of course, it will not work on every case - it isn't even indicated on every case. But, there are times it works, so I hate to see anyone discouraging it as an option to be considered.

Keep in mind, Sherri, that with your little girl her attacking her tail, it's likely there was something else going on, which means laser therapy probably wasn't going to work either way.

It also doesn't happen overnight - it's not a quick fix. What it does is allows for regeneration of cells within the wound and surrounding tissue, essentially giving a jump start to healing when healing has come to a stand still, which was the case with Neala. It has done exactly what we wanted it to do.

Well lookie, lookie! :) Neala is officially healed. I couldn't be happier. The laser therapy gave it just enough of a jump start and then it was just a matter of time. We finally made it.

Woo hoo! That is something well worth celebrating! I think I will have wine later...as a tribute to Neala's healing!
And then maybe a little happy dance.....

Just wanted to say that I've been following this thread (SUPER informative, thanks for sharing Aimee!), and am happy to see such positive results. I have LOTS of experience with wound care, and when you're treating a wound THOROUGHLY AND CORRECTLY, it can take a LONG time to heal, as it did with little Neala. I actually took it as a GOOD sign that it took 5 months because that means someone was doing something RIGHT.

Yay, Neala!

YAY!!! Looks great!