One of the oldest applications for cold lasers was equine therapy. Using lasers on horses was a great early introduction to the technology because the results are so clear and visible. Animals cannot get any placebo effect from cold laser therapy so when an animal changes it's stride or behavior immediately after a Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) session, you know it is working. This application has very different requirements than cold lasers for home use and low level therapy (LLLT) devices for office use.
One major difference is that there is no FDA clearance required for lasers used for equine therapy. This means the cost of cold lasers can be lower however it also means some products are sold on the market with no validation or quality standards behind the products. Cheaper systems often only put a fraction of the specified max power and many do not include any training or support making them both dangerous and ineffective. Some products like Powermedic, Avant, and Thor are FDA cleared for use on humans but are also sold for equine applications. The ReGen Laser and EVOlaser systems allow users to enter a code at startup that automatically switches between human and animal protocols so there is never any confusion. Apollo products have different protocol manuals for human, equine and veterinary.

Buyers must rely on the specifications and the reputation of the company, that are not FDA cleared, to build, test, and support their product to make sure they are delivering on their specifications. A non-FDA cleared device can save you money if you are willing to take the risk.

Selecting an Equine Cold Laser

The following outlines different factors to take into account when selecting the best cold laser for equine therapy.

Wavelength: One of the biggest decision to consider when buying an equine laser is which wavelengths are best. Since wavelength determines the depth of penetration, selecting the proper wavelength is critical. There is NOT one perfect wavelength for equine applications but studies show that 800 to 860nm is the best option for most therapies. For some applications (like superficial damage, abrasions, hoofs and cuts) Red (600 -640nm) is the better wavelength. 905nm also provides good efficient energy transfer to the cells and deep penetration. In general, 980nm became popular because the diodes are cheap because they are used in surgical lasers because most of the energy is converted into heat to cut and cauterize (just search on 980nm surgical laser to see why they are such bad therapy lasers). You can read more about different wavelengths and how they have different interactions with the tissue here.

Broad and Fine Area Therapy: Lasers with broad coverage heads allow for treating a large area directly and evenly. More advanced practitioners also use laser acupuncture to treat the meridians to treat the energy levels in the body, trigger points to treat the muscular system and the lymph system associated with the problem. In general, using a single non-divergent laser beam like you get in lower-end products is like trying to color in a full sheet of paper with a fine-tip ball point pen. The coverage is so random and uneven that it can not deliver consistent results. For most applications, you want a larger treatment area so a more powerful system or a system with multiple diodes is recommended.

Durability and Portability: Cold Lasers for Veterinary and Equine usage are often grouped together, however there is a big difference between these products. The biggest difference is that equine cold lasers need to be very rugged and sometimes portable. Electronics tend to take a much bigger beating in the barn than in a sterile veterinary office. Higher power class 4 laser system (10 watts and up) must be kept in a clean environment so they should not be stored in a barn. Small particles of dust can heat up from the laser energy and damage the laser. As long as the system is stored in a clean area, higher power system are fine.

Power: If you spend much time on ColdLasers.Org, you will see that we don't try to up-sell everyone on more power. With more power comes more risk. Even with a giant budget, it still may be best to get a lower power laser. That being said, things are a bit different in the equine market. Provided that you use the product properly, power is more important. Many horse injuries have large overall tissue damage that is both broad and deep. Having higher power means you can cover a large area faster and deeper. We never recommend more than less than 400mW or more than 15,000mW for equine applications.

Pulsing and Continuous Wave: In general, the consensus is that pulsing is better for most application and continuous wave is best for rebuilding nervous system damage (See Study Here). Pulsing the laser adds an additional mechanism for stimulating the cells and helps keep the body from adapting to the light input. This means that a horse with chronic problems that require long-term therapy might start to see declining results with a CW (Continuous Wave) laser. If you can afford it, we recommend buying a laser that does both pulsing and continuous wave output as these systems are more flexible. At lower power levels, pulsing is even more important so the worst option is a low-power continuous-wave only systems. (Read More about pulsing and CW advantages)

Comparing Equine Lasers

The following table includes lasers that we sell on ColdLasers.Org as well as other popular lasers. We are not dissing or recommending these other products. We feel it is important for you to know all your options before you buy a product. We have done our best to accurately show their specifications but some companies like to keep their specs a secret for some unknown reason. There are many other products that primarily target other markets and can be used for equine therapy, we have not included those products in our table. Options are listed in order of increasing power. We left out a lot of desktop options that might not stand up to the environmental requirements of an equine laser.

Product	Class /Pulse	Equipment Type	Power Waveform and Wavelength	Multi- Wave*	Warranty	Price
Class 3b
Microlight ML830	CW & Pulsed	Hand held cordless	90mW @ 830nm	Single	1 year	$4950 to $8950
Vetrolaser	CW	Flashlight style	300mW@808nm	Single	1 year	$575
Laserex 3000 450a	CW & Pulsed	Handheld cordless color display, programmable	450mW@808nm	Single	2 years	$2,672
LZ30p (for non professionals only)	CW & Pulsed	Hand held cordless	600mW@808nm 80mW @ 637nm	Dual	3 years	$4,850
LZ30x	CW & Pulsed	Hand held cordless	1000mW@808nm 250mW @ 637nm	Dual	3 years	$6,250
LZ30z	CW & Pulsed	Hand held cordless	1400mW@808nm 1000mW @ 637nm	Dual	3 years	$7,200
PowerMedic Basic 1500	Pulse Only	Hand held cordless	1400mW@808nm	Single	2 years	$3995
Thor DDv- Vet Only (with probes)	CW & Pulsed (2.5 Hz Usually)	Cordless pack+ probes	1000mW@810nm P2:69 LED@660nm	Dual	5 year if you pay for service	$10,520 and Up
Class 4
Apollo Portable +3000	CW	Portable pack + probes	3W@810nm	Single	2 years	$7,143
Pilot	CW & 1 Pulse	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	9W@810nm	Single	2 Years	$7,995
ReGen Laser S1	CW/ Pulse / Sweep	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	25W@810nm	Single	5 Years	$11,950
ReGen Laser SD	CW/ Pulse / Sweep	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	40W@810nm	Dual	5 Years	$14,950
ReGen Laser SQ	CW/ Pulse / Sweep	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	60W@810nm	Quad	5 Years	$19,950
EVOlaser S9	CW/ Pulse / Sweep	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	9W@810nm	Single	5 Years	$8,950
EVOlaser D30	CW/ Pulse / Sweep	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	15W @ 810nm 15W @ 980nm	Dual	5 Years	$12,995
EVOlaser Q27	CW/ Pulse / Sweep	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	200mW@635nm 9W@810nm 9W@980 9W@910	Quad	5 Years	$13,995
LiteCure Pegasus	CW, Pulsed (50% duty cycle only)	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	9W to 25W@ 980nm/810nm	Fixed Blend	2 years	$17,000 to $45,000
KLaser Vet Cube 4+	CW/ Pulse / Sweep	Controller + Fiber Optic Probes	100mW @ 660nm 15W @ 810nm 15W @ 980nm 15W @ 920nm	Quad	5 Years	$27,000

* In this table, multi-wavelength does not include the guide light (red laser/LED at 5mW) as it is designed to illuminate the treatment area and not treat it. Some low-end manufacturers list this in their spec. This is deceiving.

Using the Laser

One of the last critical areas to consider when buying a system is the level of training that comes with the laser. Many systems from other sellers do not include adequate training on how to use the laser horses. Every system that we sell includes the laser-therapy.us animal protocol library (You can see all the available protocols here). The laser-therapy system used the best practice of dynamically calculating the dosage based on key factors like the size of the horse and color of the horse. If you are using a printout of other statically created protocol, you need to get your calculator out or your your dosage can be horribly wrong. Size, color and therapy objective have a huge impact on calculating the optimum dosage for the best results. This is especially key for anyone who does not have experience using a laser on an animal. When you purchase any animal laser from ColdLasers.Org, we include the information that you need to properly treat animals using the current best practices.

Summary

For most cases, we recommend buying a 800nm to 860nm wavelength rugged laser with a power of more than 500mW (1/2 watt) and less than 30,000mW (30 watts). A great system will also have energy output in the RED spectrum. For treatment of superficial injures and hoofs, we recommend a cold laser that also operates in the 600nm - 680nm wavelength. The Klaser Vet is the gold standard in therapy lasers. With 3 or 4 wavelengths, it provides the most flexibility and it is the highest quality Italian built precision laser on the market.

The Avant systems are highly recommended because they operate in both RED and IR plus they can do both pulsing and continuous wave. With the included light pipe, a skilled practitioner can also treat the horses meridians, acupoints and trigger points. That means, you have 4 different types of therapy you can use for treating a condition and that means even more amazing results.

If you desire more power and can't afford a Klaser, look at the EVOlaser. They cost 20% - 30% less than similar powered class-4 systems. If you looking at lower-price systems, the RG500i and Laserex 3000 are great performance for the price. They are very rugged and have adjustable power and adjustable pulsing at the ideal wavelength of 810nm.

Here are a few reasons to buy from ColdLasers.Org

	ColdLasers is a "Brick and Mortar" Located at 921 Main Street in Louisville, CO, we are no virtual store front, we are the biggest and best PBM store in the US.
	The Best Support in the Laser Industry We will do everything in our power to make sure you get unbiased advice, the best training and the best service support.
	The Industries Best Protocol Library Every laser comes with the Laser-Therapy.US library. This app follows the best practices for laser therapy and dynamically creates pictorial treatment plans for over 250 different conditions for humans, pets and horses. This is the best training tool in the industry.
	No Sales Tax Outside Colorado The price on the site is the total price if you live outside of Colorado.
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