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Sammanfattning

Pain is a common clinical sign in dogs and negatively affects animal welfare. Pain is a subjective and multifaceted experience that cannot be measured directly in animals. Instead, pain assessment relies on indirect indicators such as behavioural, physiological, and functional indicators, all with inherent limitations. Osteoarthritis is a prevalent welfare concern in dogs and a chronic, degenerative, and painful condition affecting diarthrodial joints. Despite available pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments, insufficient treatment response and limited pain relief remain common challenges. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation is used for pain relief in dogs, but scientific evidence supporting its efficacy in dogs is limited.

The aims of this thesis were to investigate the possible pain-relieving effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in dogs with osteoarthritis and to develop activity monitoring methodology for assessing physical activity. Using the applied stimulation parameters, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation administered as single or repeated treatments did not result in significant changes in pain-related clinical findings, behavioural outcomes assessed by pain questionnaires, gait parameters assessed by clinical examination and pressure-sensitive mat analysis, or physical activity measured using activity monitors and questionnaires. These results should be interpreted with caution due to the small heterogeneous study population. Fast Fourier transform analysis of accelerometry data showed that most physical activity in pet dogs occurs below 25 Hz, exceeding the range captured by commonly used commercial filtering approaches. Signal filtering substantially influenced activity intensity classification. In addition, variance of unfiltered vector magnitude did not distinguish between wear-time and non-wear periods, and human-validated non-wear detection methods were not applicable to canine data. These findings emphasize the need for species-specific validation of accelerometry data processing methods in dogs.

Nyckelord

TENS; OA; canine; accelerometry; pressure-sensitive mat; HCPI; CBPI; clinical examination; non-wear time; sampling frequency

Publicerad i

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae
2026, nummer: 2026:11
Utgivare: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

SLU författare

UKÄ forskningsämne

Klinisk vetenskap

Publikationens identifierare

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.54612/a.2jbefn01kv
  • ISBN: 978-91-8124-208-9
  • eISBN: 978-91-8124-228-7

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/145786