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KEARNEY — Shooting pets with lasers can help them. Dr. Patricia Murphy, a veterinarian with the West Villa Animal Hospital PC in Kearney, offers a method of healing and treating animals that is new to central Nebraska.

Murphy uses lasers that focus beams of low-level energy to stimulate cells that are in need of repair. The beam of energy is so low that it is called “cold” laser therapy, and does not cut or burn tissue.

Although scientists have used cold lasers to heal animals since the experimental stages of laser technology, Murphy is the first veterinarian to use it on animals in central Nebraska.

“It’s something new,” Murphy said. “It’s been used on humans for quite a while, but people need to see that it works before they’ll give it a try.” She said famous athletes, such as Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong, have successfully used cold laser therapy to heal quickly.

Murphy also performs acupuncture and chiropractic therapy on animals, so this is not the first alternative therapy Murphy has administered.

Murphy explained that when a cell is damaged, it loses some, or all, of its energy. Using lasers, photons are transmitted into cells to help re-energize them. “The light puts energy back into the mitochondrial DNA, so the cell can heal, reproduce and regenerate itself,” she said.

Murphy said research has proven that use of the laser increases the energy that is needed by every cell in the body to perform every function. “Cells also need to communicate to each other properly,” she said. “Sometimes when cells are injured severely, they lose this ability to communicate. The laser helps to restore this vital communication.”

Murphy said her low-level laser can be used to help heal wounds, strains, sprains, arthritis, diabetes, organ damage and even allergies. She said low-level laser therapy is very safe, is completely painless and therapy applications are almost limitless.

“Right now I’m treating a Labrador and a Dachshund,” she said. “They’re allergic to almost everything. What lasing does is resets the immune system back to before it had an issue with those allergens.”

The treatments are not expensive, especially in comparison to surgery or long-term medication regimens.

“I like it because it’s a non-invasive procedure,” Murphy said. “I also like to help animals without putting a lot of chemicals in the body, if I can.”

Murphy said the time it takes for animals to heal, or improve their condition, using laser therapy depends on the application. She also said progress is immediately evident.

“Our number one goal is stabilization of the injured area,” she said. “Once that happens, there are still other treatments that will be performed.” These treatments may include chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy rehabilitation and therapeutic doses of laser treatment.

“Some things that take months to heal take weeks,” she said.