Shockwave therapy for small animals
What is shockwave therapy?
Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) uses high energy sound waves to deliver energy deep into the body to treat a range of musculoskeletal conditions. It can come in two forms, Focused Shockwave and Radial Shockwave. At the QVSH we currently use a Radial Shockwave machine.
How it works
Radial shockwave works via a pneumatic system and the percussion of an applicator to generate a shockwave that is released into the tissue. The shockwaves created by these devices stimulate the body’s own healing response, either by mechanically breaking down calcium deposits, diminishing pain by affected nerves in the area, or by their stimulatory effect on injured tissue to begin healing again.
ESWT is commonly used for chronic tendon/ligament injuries as well as osteoarthritis, bone healing, and lumbosacral disease. There are certain instances where shockwave is not appropriate for an animal (growing puppies, blood clotting disorders, certain cancers, etc.) and we will flag these up to you before commencing treatment after reading through your pet’s clinical history from your vets and taking an in-person history from you.
What to expect from a course of shockwave therapy
The initial consultation for ESWT will be as part of a physiotherapy appointment (ESWT will be administered by our veterinary physiotherapist). This is in order to give your animal a full physical examination in order to highlight other areas of the body that either could benefit from shockwave or would need addressing through other physiotherapeutic techniques. This assessment will be repeated at follow up physiotherapy appointments to monitor for progress. The reason for this is because we believe in treating the animal holistically and we are able to achieve better patient outcomes when we treat the entire animal, including any areas of compensation or previous injury. Additionally, whilst ESWT is very beneficial for the injuries listed above, it works far better when in combination with a home exercise plan. In many cases, we will recommend to continue with a graduated physiotherapy plan following the final ESWT treatment to gradually return your pet to activity and keep them mobile and strong longer term.
For the initial appointment, please allow at least 1 ½ hours (this will likely be longer if sedation is required as they will need to properly wake up before you are able to take them home) and for follow up appointments that include physiotherapy, allow up to an hour.
Although it can vary from patient to patient, we will often recommend a total of 2-4 shockwave sessions, ideally weekly and often in combination with a physiotherapy consult. If your pet is already under the care of a veterinary physiotherapist or for whatever reason, it is not possible to do both ESWT and physiotherapy, we can still accommodate your pet, although we would still recommend that at least the initial consult is done so that we can get baseline values for your pet and tailor the ESWT treatment specifically to them.
ESWT is non-invasive and in most cases, we won’t even need to shave your animal’s fur (although this may be required for double coated breeds). A conductive/ultrasound gel is applied to the treatment area for the sound waves to travel through but this is water soluble and will be wiped away after the treatment is complete. In order to minimise any soreness felt following treatment, we start at lower doses and only increase this in subsequent treatments if the first treatment is well tolerated. It can take between 1-4 weeks following the final ESWT treatment to see the full benefits of the therapy in your pet.
The vast majority of animals tolerate this therapy very well, but in some cases, depending on temperament and the site of the injury, a small number may find the first treatment a little uncomfortable and so sedation may be required in order to complete the shockwave treatment. This will be administered and monitored by one of our qualified veterinary surgeons on site. In case your pet does end up requiring sedation, please do not feed them on the morning of their first appointment.
There are no special considerations after the treatment but please do keep them on any currently prescribed medication for the duration of the course of treatment.
Cost
Initial physiotherapy session - £90
Follow up physiotherapy session - £80
Shockwave - £105 per treatment*
*As mentioned above, your pet may require sedation in order to receive shockwave and this will incur an extra cost which is variable depending on size of the animal.
