Shockwave Dosing

[lehughes]

Hi Laurie,

Hello from Sweden, long time no see!
Hope you are doing well!

I have a colleague here in Sweden who just started to test treating arthritis with shock waves. She works in a clinic
and in the cases she did so far they have sedated the dogs. Two clients had toe arthritis, and this is something that I haven't tried yet!
But I have been thinking about it, but because I guess it might be painful I haven't done it.

But the dogs she treated got so much better, and one of them was even on the way to be euthanized.
But is still alive and is doing great 6 months later.

So far I only treat necks, backs, iliopsoas, Sacro-iliac pain and hip arthritis, shoulder pain like supra/biceps pain and medial shoulder pain.

By the way, I have a mobile radial from Chattanooga. And my college has the same. It is the same as you have on your videos.

So my question is, if you treat arthritis pain in joints? And do you use the same shock wave as we use?
The following question is in that case, what dose you use, Bar/Hertz and pulses?

In horses they often use the radial piezo electrical shock wave here in Sweden, and it seems to be less painful, but I don't know?

Would be great to hear your experiences if you can find some time to answer me

Wish you all good,
and talk soon
L.

[lehughes]

Hey L!

Long time no see for sure! I hope you guys are all doing well.

So, shockwave. I love it for arthritis. It’s one of my usual tools. I find the dogs tolerate it fairly well (shoulders, elbows, carpi, hips, stifles, tarsals).
I’ve only ever tried it once on a toe, but the dog was NOT going to have anything to do with it! So I didn’t finish the treatment.
It might be a case where sedation would help allow for treatment.

I choose the BAR depending on the amount of tissue coverage (i.e. for a carpus I might only use 2.0 bar and only increase that if tolerated). For Stifles, hips, shoulder, elbows I go as high as my machine will allow (which means I try to start out at 3.6 bar… but pressure drops in my machine and I tend to end up at 2.8bar). If you lower the HZ, you can sometimes get a higher bar. My default Hz is 11 or 12 (just because that’s what the literature tended to report the most).

Did you see the 3 part shockwave series I had on FourLeg (and the newsletters)? I’ve got lots on shockwave.

Oh, pulses. I always start with 2000 shocks. I have found over the years that for OA joints, the more the better. So I will often try for 3000 and sometimes if I get talking, it’s 4000 or more. That’s how I learned that more is better. The owners told me that their dog was so much improved after the day that I accidentally did 5 or 6000 shocks on the one elbow!!!

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Laurie

[lehughes]

This is great Laurie Thanks a LOT! Yes I did look at your site about shockwave but maybe not all of them. I happened to see your video on YouTube.
So when you treat an elbow and hook joint, it’s quite bony! How do you project the probe? And what size of probe do you use?
I am really grateful for your answers
Much love
L

[lehughes]

So, the probe we use is about about a 2cm probe.
I don’t change the probe out, but I do reduce the bar for carpal and tarsal joints. For elbows, I do a lot to the anterior crease and some on the medial & lateral sides. Interestingly, they seem to tolerate the higher doses to the anterior crease quite well… but really, a trial and error approach would be okay as well. Since Shockwave should never be painful, THAT is your guide. And then you work to be able to use as high of a dose as tolerated.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Laurie

[dizzy downunder]

I am just trialling a couple of "lite" shockwave units at the moment and have a few questions even before applying the machine to the patient.
Clipping or non-clipping- I would love to know peoples experience with this.
So far clipping the patients unsedated has been causing quite a reaction from the dogs, so not a good place to start introducing a noisy therapy
Gel or no gel- from your video Laurie it was hard to tell whether there was gel on too.

[lehughes]

I don't clip the hair at all. You're not likely gaining much by doing so.

And I don't use gel (unless I were to be using it on a hairless dog or cat. Really, it only provides a say to slide the head across the tissues. It is not needed for conduction.



Laurie

[dizzy downunder]

Thanks Laurie, any experience much appreciated.