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:
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:
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.