BEMER for stifle injury? What about pelvis injury?

[BroncoMo]

I’ve long entertained a PEMF machine for personal use as well as side hustle gig. Problem is 1) the cost (I have other equipment to pay off before entertaining another expensive toy), and 2) my lack of time to do 30+ minute sessions on multiple personal horses. So I’ve been entertaining a BEMER.

Here’s what I have:
-22 year old semi-retired broodmare (she gets embryos pulled, does not carry on her own). She has PPID, IR, and stifle issues. One stifle has a substantial bone spur and limited cartilage remaining. She benefits from PEMF sessions.

-5 year old broodmare (also gets embryos pulled) with a healed broken pelvis. Gets around great, albeit crookedly. Benefits from PEMF sessions.

-8 year old show horse with kissing spines.

-14 year old hunter with the self-induced wear and tear of a middle aged adrenaline junky living a frat boy life style. Seriously, most of his minor issues are from his “work hard, play harder” mantra.

My questions for those who have experience with both PEMF machines and BEMER:
-Does the BEMER blanket “coils” (not sure what else to call them…) go low enough to work on a stifle?

-I realize the BEMER does not work with the same intensity of a machine, but would it still benefit the broken pelvis mare? I do realize she would likely need it daily or so to benefit.

I had previously been turned off by the need to use the blanket daily, or nearly so, whereas a machine could be of benefit once or twice a week… until I borrowed a friend’s blanket at a show for the KS horse. I didn’t realize how short of duration the treatment was. I could very feasibly throw the blanket on horse A, go about my chores for a short time, remove the blanket and put on horse B, carry on with my life, etc, etc. So I’m now quite intrigued by the idea of a blanket as this method is more likely to fit in to my already overflowing schedule than standing with machine loops on a horse for X amount of time before swapping to another.

Thoughts considering my particular dumpster fires?

[NaturallyHappy]

I have a bemer and I love it. I use it almost every day- it’s very convenient. I had the orange one and bought the newer one when it came out. I love it…and I turn it sideways so it does reach the stifle area and down into the gastrocnemius area, which flexes the stifle joint.

[Feathered_Feet]

Generally speaking a Bemer would not reach the stifle. Sounds like NaturallyHappy has a way to do it, but I can’t quite visualize how to do that without risking it falling/rotating on a horse loose in a stall (which is main benefit of a bemer - toss it on and walk away). I guess you could leave it on a quiet, trustworthy horse, or keep them in the cross ties.

However, the benefits of a bemer go beyond just the area its covering. Sure, direct application is probably better, but the impact on the nervous system goes beyond just the areas under the blanket. Even a little bit helps, and it may be helping even if you don’t see, feel, or notice the benefits. But it’s a help kind of thing - if there’s something that needs fixing, a bemer won’t fix it (but it sounds like you know that).

For your situation, with all your horses, you’d probably get great use out of it and your horses would almost certainly be happier having it than not.

[NaturallyHappy]

To your point, I typically hang it sideways-front end on one side and back end on the other side-in cross ties, but I can also do it in the stall while they are eating hay. It stays remarkably well. I use the front end to hang all the way down to the gastroc muscle. The bemer I use for this is the new, blueish- green one.

[Feathered_Feet]

Does it stay even if the horse walks around the stall? And does it stay close to the skin? I would think it would drape a bit, and I don’t know how much distance you can get before the efficacy is decreased. I guess I don’t generally have quiet-enough horses for which I would risk a $$ blanket falling and getting trampled (unless I were close by, of course).

[NaturallyHappy]

It stays fairly well if they move a little and it does drape a bit. Honestly, I think it lulls him into such a relaxed state he doesn’t move around a great deal. I do body work, too, and see a difference in his response when I use the bemer that way, even if it’s draped. If I Velcro the boots together to hang on his neck in cross ties, that contraption does fall off.

[BroncoMo]

I wonder if a cuff could be rigged up/velcroed to a stifle. The old stifle injury mare is suuuuuper quiet. I would likely tie her or put her in a stall. But she’s not the most active creature in the world, so for her I would trust her to do a contraption of sorts.

[NaturallyHappy]

I’ve used a polo wrap to hold the boots in place if I stack them on a leg. I’ve also used a polo to “wrap” one side of the front part of the bemer around the hind leg more closely.

[greywithchrome]

I have a PEMF machine and have also used the Bemer blanket - I do like the Bemer but I agree with the sentiment that it needs to be used every day to be useful. I think the Bemer would be great for most of the horses on the list but I don’t think it would be enough to help the stifle of the first horse. Someone in the comments mentioned rigging the “cuff” to go around the stifle and I have done this in the past with the help of stifle wraps and I do think it helped. And I think it would help the horse with the pelvis injury since it is healed and she probably just needs some help keeping the inflammation in that area low.

[BroncoMo]

A stifle wrap to hold it is a great idea. I forgot they make those.

The pelvis injury mare mostly deals with shortening of the muscles in that side of her hindquarters. So truly she looks like that leg is shorter than the other. The couple times I’ve had her pulsed, those muscles lengthen and she stands relatively square. So I would be curious to see how BEMERing every day would help, as opposed to pulsing on occasion.

[Against_All_Odds2]

There is velcro on the area of the blanket to velcro the cuff to the stifle area.

[RedHorses]

For the stifle I put the cuff on a leg strap (as short as it will go) with the coils against the horse. The cuff straps are looped over the leg strap and velcroed back to the cuff. I push the cuff up to the front of the leg strap and it hangs on an angle pretty close to to angle of the horse’s upper leg.

Apparently a cuff on one lower leg will reach both (paired front or back) legs if the horse is standing reasonably square. (The cuff signal is 3x stronger than the blanket signal.) Even if the horse cocks the leg, the cuff stays close enough to the stifle when I hang it as described. I can probably get a picture if you want to see it.

Regular use sees the greatest benefit with the Bemer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean daily. My senior gets done 4-6 times/week (closer to 4 in winter, 6 in allergy/heaves season) and I have seen long term benefits. My younger horse didn’t like it that often. He was happy with 1-2x/week. My lease horse isn’t on a routine yet, but I’m going to start with 1-2x/week.

When my senior colicked before Christmas, he lost gut sounds on the second day and showed increased pain. I put the Bemer on him, and after running a blanket session I hooked the leg straps between the front leg loop and the surcingle loop, and hung the cuffs off them. After running the cuffs, my horse’s pain was reduced and he had some quiet gut sounds. (The vet was enroute at that point.). Certainly it could have been coincidence, but I’d prefer to not have the opportunity to repeat the test!

When I first got the Bemer, younger horse was having some back pain. I’d do a blanket on him, then place (one or both depending on how much of his back hurt) a cuff over the painful area and run that. Senior horse has seasonal heaves so I use the cuffs open on both sides (the ends of the straps just reach the side of his spine, and they’re secured with an elastic surcingle) over his lungs after the blanket. You could do some similar targeting with a cuff, or both, for your broken pelvis horse.

@BroncoMo it does sound like the Bemer would work well for you. You would be able to use the blanket and cuffs simultaneously on two different horses if you wanted to. Bear in mind I haven’t used the tube PEMF system.

I run my senior’s Bemer blanket on a three week cycle. Week 1 is program 1 (5 min), week two is program 2 (10 min), and week 3 is program 3 (15. min). You could have your horses at different points in the cycle (first two horses on week 1, second pair on week 2, etc) to keep your average time more consistent.

[Feathered_Feet]

@Against_All_Odds2

There is velcro on the area of the blanket to velcro the cuff to the stifle area.

OMG really?!? That’s pretty cool. I had no idea. They also now have a neck wrap (or coming out soon - reps at Devon last year were telling me about it) - I wonder if that will also be able to velcroed on different areas?

The fact that they built in velcro spots is awesome, though I feel like they need to promote that more as I’ve used several and I had no idea this was a feature.

[Against_All_Odds2]

[greywithchrome]

Interesting! Great idea by the manufacturers.

[NaturallyHappy]

I officially feel like an idiot. I would never have thought of that🤦‍♀️. Ever. Thanks for posting a picture.

[BroncoMo]

Excellent!! Thank you. Seems like they thought out the design very well. I’ve only used a friends Bemer a couple times at shows and with my abundance of free time (sarcasm) I just never looked close at those kind of details.

[BroncoMo]

Excellent thoughts and ideas. I love the idea of running them on different cycles. And thank you for the explanation of rigging up a cuff on the stifle.

4-6 days a week is more likely in my situation. I’m in aviation and fly a couple nights a week, so obviously they wouldn’t get done then. But otherwise the short duration of the treatments are very feasible.

[Feathered_Feet]

Interesting! So I don’t know that Bemer intended it this way, since literally no one has ever mentioned this, not even the reps when they were explaining to me how to use the cuffs on the neck, etc. So I think you might just be particularly clever!

[NaturallyHappy]

I was able to snap this picture tonight. He’s in crossties. The weight of the blanket is all that is holding/balancing it on him.