The addition of an Ultrasound Machine to our veterinary clinic years ago has greatly improved our diagnostic capabilities.
Ultrasound machines are familiar to many clients as often the first pictures of their unborn babies were seen on them. This is only scratching the surface.
An Ultrasound basically shows you an image that is a representation of a slice right through the animal.
You can literally look right inside a liver searching for a tumour for instance, without having to subject the pet to surgery. In most instances the ultrasound is done with the pet awake, supported on its back in a “v” shaped trough.
Often pets start to fall asleep during the procedure as the probe is passed back and forth over their abdomen. If an abnormality is found, in the liver for instance, we can use the ultrasound to guide a biopsy needle to the exact location and get a sample to send to the lab, aga in without having to perform a surgical exploratory.