What is Prolotherapy for Pets?
Prolotherapy for pets is the same procedure as “proliferation therapy” or “regenerative injection therapy”.
In prolotherapy, mild irritants are injected into injured areas to stimulate healing and repair of the damaged tissues.
It is primarily used to treat pain in the joints of the body.
In humans, prolotherapy is also called Non-Surgical Ligament and Tendon Reconstruction and Regenerative Joint Injection.
And, it is a recognized orthopedic procedure for strengthening and repairing injured and painful joints and connective tissue.
We use prolotherapy for pets to help with:
- Arthritis
- Degenerated or herniated discs
- Neck and back pain
- Degenerative joint disease
- Tendonitis
- Torn tendons, ligaments and cartilage
How Does It Work?
In a nutshell, prolotherapy stimulates your pet’s natural healing mechanisms to lay down new tissue in a weakened area.
In prolotherapy, a mild irritant is injected into the injury site, “tricking” the body to repair again.
Your pet’s body creates a mild inflammatory response to the irritant.
The mild inflammatory response encourages the growth of new, normal tissue fibers.
In turn, the new tissue results in a tightening and healing of the weakened area.
Additional treatments repeat the process, allowing a gradual buildup of tissue to restore the original strength to the area.
Of course, prolotherapy is not suitable in all cases.
For example, if your dog tears a ligament or tendon completely, surgery is generally a much better option.
The History of Prolotherapy
Prolotherapy may sound like a new, alternative medicine procedure.
However, ancient doctors used prolotherapy/sclerotherapy successfully as early as 500 B.C.
Yes, in ancient times, doctors treated shoulder joint dislocations of Roman soldiers with hot branding irons. The hot branding irons helped fuse the torn ligaments in the shoulder joint.
Thank goodness advances in medicine greatly improved the prolotherapy process!
Now we use modern techniques for strengthening the fibrous tissue and creating new, normal collagen, rather than producing scarring to fuse tissues.
And, your pet suffers minimal pain from the procedure.
Do you think your pet could benefit from prolotherapy?