Abdominal Ultrasound

It’s been a while since my last blog post but I have a great topic I want to talk about.  This is a timely post simply because I am smack dab in the middle of an ultrasonography course focusing on the abdomen of dogs and cats.  Dr Zumpano has several years of experience with ultrasound and I have been given the opportunity to take an extensive course with Sound Imaging at the Sound Academy in Arlington, Texas.  This course involves three trips to Texas over 5 months with extensive homework assignments that are to be submitted in between. This involves ultrasounding at every opportunity I can, even between appointments and procedures.  I appreciate those of you who have been so willing to allow me to scan your pets - I appreciate the opportunity to learn at every chance and it certainly helps us find any problems that may be lurking!

Many people have encountered ultrasound either personally or with your pet.  This is an incredible technology that has made diagnosing problems and evaluating illnesses and structures within the belly of our pets a very helpful part of diagnostic work ups.  

For those who aren’t familiar -  ultrasound scan uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of the inside of the body. Ultrasound technology has grown considerably and, as I mentioned above, has become an invaluable addition to our diagnostic capabilities in veterinary medicine.  One of the greatest aspects is that ultrasound is very non-invasive. It’s very safe and typically done on awake patients (may require mild sedation if they are uncomfortable) and the most invasive thing we have to do is clip their belly fur to allow us to get good diagnostic images.  In many cases we use ultrasound alone or to complement Xrays which are great in showing you if there are any obvious abnormalities - but ultrasound takes it one step further. Looking at the structure and architecture of the organs within the abdomen to look for subtle abnormalities that may be indicative of current or impending disease issues.  It was ultrasound that let us know little miss Patty was pregnant with those adorable little pups!

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any more questions or want to learn more!

Also - as I mentioned, I do need some more opportunities to scan for homework over the next several weeks, if you read this and thought “I bet my dog/cat could be a good patient for Covert” don’t hesitate to shoot us an email!