Electrical stimulation after mechanical conditioning in dogs for assessment of conditioned pain modulation

Conditioned pain modulation can be activated by the chosen conditioning stimulus. However, a clinically meaningful increase in the electrical threshold of > 60% could not reliably be evoked. Individual animals responded very strongly to the conditioning (showing intense behavioural reactions such as vocalisation or appeasement gestures), which may indicate that the individual tolerance limit was exceeded. Therefore, clinical application without further adaptation of the conditioning protocol is currently not recommended.