Laurie's Blogs.

Hey Laurie,

Hope you are well!

I bought an e-stim years ago and after a few failed attempts it ended up in my drawer. After watching some of your videos I decided to dust it off and try again. I spent the better part of a Saturday night playing with pulse width (PW) and hertz (Hz) to find the most comfortable settings to get a contraction…I live SUCH an exciting life! 

I settled on 200PW and 50 Hz. I once again tried it on the quads of a post-op grade 4 patellar luxation Boxer with NO success. She went ballistic when the amplitude was high enough to cause a contraction!

So my question is, what parameters do you use and how well do the dogs you use it on tolerate the stim?

Thanks for any input you have!

JP

-- -- -- -- -- 

Hey!

So, firstly check the e-stim on yourself just to make sure that it's not a short in the wiring etc.

Then, if you suspect it to be a little uncomfortable (which is what I'd be thinking at this point), then try with a PW as low as you can take it (i.e. 50 or 100 usec).  This is most comfortable.  Then I like 2 - 5 pps (Hz) for a 'tappy' sensation and activation of slow twitch muscle fibres... which are the ones that atrophy with disuse.

I find that most dogs tolerate this very well.  I only have very few now that don't like it - but they don't seem to like any electro therapy  of any sorts.  So I don't think it's the machine or the settings, but rather intolerance of e-stim.  (I remember having a handful of human patients like that.)

Give it a whirl, it's my favourite setting (with the most research to back it up as well!)

Cheers,

Laurie