Cold laser therapy, and insurers

Winston has been diagnosed with severe arthritis, and apart from painkillers there's not much we can do but my vet did recommend cold laser therapy.

I've had a look around and I can't find much info on it. There's a clinic an hour from my that do it, and it will cost approximately £200 for a course of sessions, so it sounds really like it's worth a go at least. He is covered by Petplan and I have inquired with them, but they cannot give any indication of whether it would be covered under either the veterinary fees or the complementary therapy part. They have said that as long as it is for a condition that he has and as long as the vet recommends it they will consider it, but the problem is the lack of information around and the lack of proven results. I suppose that doesn't necessarily matter as it may come under complementary therapy in that case, along with other unproven things.

I would be really interested to know if anyone has had cold laser therapy on themselves or any animal, what condition they had it for and how they did? And also if anyone has any experience with insurers (preferably Petplan), how did it go?

Never had it etc.

But generally I can see PP covering it. So long as your vet states very clearly on the records that the treatment is strongly advised, and will be able to answer questions as to why it's advised I can't see them refusing the pay.

You could, ask the place that offer the treatment to do a pre-authorisation for the treatment.
This means they mock up a claim form and send it to PP to be processed as a real claim. At the end, they'll say if they'll cover it or not. This will give you a 100% answer as to if it's covered or not. (I think PP can sent pre-authorisation forms to you, or the place may already have them)

The best way I can think to look at it, without much info on it.... if PP say they will not cover it, would you still have paid to have the treatment course? Would it be worth the try at easing the discomfort of arthritis?

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One of our rabbits, Ari, suffers from spondolysis and gets acupuncture and laser therapy along with metacam. The complementary treatments are working so well that we have been considering taking her off metacam altogether ! The treatments are £50 per session, she's insured with pet plan and they cover this for her.
Our previous rabbit pepper received accupuncture which helped her a lot too

Thank you so much both of you!

I didn't know about the pre-authorisation for the treatment, that's really useful to know. I would definitely pay for the course if I wasn't in such a **** financial situation... years of looking after my previous bunny Nena's dental abscess, along with my health issues, has contributed to me being several thousand pounds in debt so I have to be so careful with money to dig myself out of this hole. Also re-doing the bunny accommodation to suit his arthritis is likely to cost me £300-400+. Having said that, there are always credit cards and his quality of life is extremely important to me.

I'm so pleased to hear that Ari is doing well on acupuncture and laser therapy, acupuncture is the other thing I was considering but my vet was so enthusiastic about laser therapy that I will try that first. I'm so excited to hear that Petplan cover it and by the sounds of it it comes under complementary therapy which is so useful so as not to put pressure on the £2000 limit!

How do you find Ari tolerates it? I have read that it is not painful at all, so I'm not worried about that, more about him getting bored on the table! He is quite naughty at the vets. Having said that he gets a great deal of comfort from human interaction so I'm sure I can calm him

Both our rabbits never bothered with it and would just sit. Pepper sometimes got bored and wanted to go be nosey lol
Ari seems to quite enjoy it, she was like a little cotton wool ball before we started doing acupuncture, you can actually see her get physically longer as they do it haha & she likes the massage at the end.
The vet also gave us exercises to perform with a wobble cushion at home.

Pre authorisation is a good idea if worried about finances as this way you know if they will pay out or not

It seems cold laser therapy is taking off everywhere. My parents get some treatments with it through their chiropracter. They must have faith in it because they returned our Christmas gift to them and plan to use the cash to buy their own laser. :lol:

I have heard of it being beneficial for rabbits with arthritis. One person I know found it helped her elderly, large breed rabbit quite a bit at first, but as her condition deterioated, it stopped having affect. I think it would vary case to case. She used it along with medications and some accupuncture and physical therapy she did at home.

Another friend seems to know a bit about cold laser and has talked about it's use for wound healing both in humans and animals. She even said you can use one of those laser pointers... I need to pick her brains on the subject more.

Here is a little bit about cold laser therapy from the House Rabbit Society: http://rabbit.org/alternative-thera...eletal-issues-and-to-stimulate-wound-healing/

ETA: You might like to read this newletter also. http://www.rabbitadvocates.org/newsletters/Spring_15.pdf

hope it helps, as long as its for an underlying condition, then PP should pay out, as it is its for arthritis, whether it works or not should not be an issue regarding making a claim

Thanks so much everyone, and those are interesting articles jerseygirl! My vet has consulted with the vet who does acupuncture at my own practice and he feels he could treat Winston effectively too with that, so I think I might go for acupuncture first just because I'm guaranteed Petplan will pay out and then in the meantime I will save in case Petplan don't cover the cold laser therapy. Not sure though, it's really difficult to choose between the two! I don't think there's a right or wrong order to do them in though so I don't think it'll matter much thankfully

I can't help, but I really want to try this for my TMJ (jaw) problem!

When I spoke to my acupuncture vet about it, she said that she thinks acupuncture is more effective (she said 'why would we stick needles into muscles if you can get the same effect without doing so') but says in some instances the laser works well in addition - rather than instead of...so you have the acupuncture treatment and then straight after have the laser. They do different things. In the acupuncture my cats have for arthritis, she feels for the knots in the muscle and puts the needles straight into those 'trigger points', the needle helps to agitate the muscles out of spasm and that helps with the postural issues, while at the same time giving endorphin relief which gives pain relief. The laser reduces inflammation which is a totally different thing. I can see that they could work well together if the acupuncture alone didn't seem to be working well.

Santa said:

When I spoke to my acupuncture vet about it, she said that she thinks acupuncture is more effective (she said 'why would we stick needles into muscles if you can get the same effect without doing so') but says in some instances the laser works well in addition - rather than instead of...so you have the acupuncture treatment and then straight after have the laser. They do different things. In the acupuncture my cats have for arthritis, she feels for the knots in the muscle and puts the needles straight into those 'trigger points', the needle helps to agitate the muscles out of spasm and that helps with the postural issues, while at the same time giving endorphin relief which gives pain relief. The laser reduces inflammation which is a totally different thing. I can see that they could work well together if the acupuncture alone didn't seem to be working well.

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This is what Ari has, she has acupuncture then laser straight after. She then gets a little massage. It works well for her and you can actually see her getting longer as they do the treatments
We also try and do exercises that are recommended by the vet at home too although ari is somewhat reluctant to try these :lol:

Santa said:

When I spoke to my acupuncture vet about it, she said that she thinks acupuncture is more effective (she said 'why would we stick needles into muscles if you can get the same effect without doing so') but says in some instances the laser works well in addition - rather than instead of...so you have the acupuncture treatment and then straight after have the laser. They do different things. In the acupuncture my cats have for arthritis, she feels for the knots in the muscle and puts the needles straight into those 'trigger points', the needle helps to agitate the muscles out of spasm and that helps with the postural issues, while at the same time giving endorphin relief which gives pain relief. The laser reduces inflammation which is a totally different thing. I can see that they could work well together if the acupuncture alone didn't seem to be working well.

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I need to go to the vets myself, I think! :lol:

SarahP said:

I need to go to the vets myself, I think! :lol:

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Haha I often think this myself :lol: