Plantar stimulation with noxious heat (55C) in an anesthetized animal. Any recommendations?

Hi all,
I want to stimulate the paw of an anesthetized animal with noxious heat (55C) for activity dependent labeling (Fos). I was thinking to use 55C water, but it’s kind of awkward to dip the paw in when it’s on it’s belly. I could use a dropper (pasteur) but then I worry about some cooling and also mechanical stimulation with drops hitting the paw. Do you have any recommendations?

Here’s one answer to my question:

“For heat stimulation, one drop of 50 °C water was applied to the shaved dorsal calf ten times, once per minute. The mice were perfused transcardially with 4% paraformaldehyde 90 min after treatment.”

From: http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v16/n2/full/nn.3289.html?WT.feed_name=subjects_skin-manifestations

You could use/build a thermode. Medoc makes some (quite expensive) pain systems. However, if you are just doing plantar stimulation you could buy one of these guys:

http://www.shop.customthermoelectric.com/03201-9U30-08RA-Thermoelectric-Peltier-Mini-Module-03201-9U30-08RA.htm;jsessionid=36F959A12796EDE4B6A647EDF1A0B873.p3plqscsfapp001?gclid=CNS1kranrtQCFcePswod3yQPVQ

And probably control it with an arduino or something…just be sure to calibrate it!

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@cjblack Thanks for the suggestion! I was thinking about something like this. I may try rigging together one based on the part you linked to.

So I used 55C water for 30s. I just dipped the paw in a beaker of water. It worked well enough. I got very strong Fos induction in the ipsilateral dorsal horn. It’s a little awkward but i hung the mouse over the side of a table so that the paw would drop in the water.