Diagnostics | Digital Radiology
Standard radiographs (x-rays) are taken in veterinary practice to evaluate a number of areas of your pet's body. The advantage to digital radiology is that the time spent taking your pets' radiographs is significantly shorter, and fewer pictures need to be taken to achieve a perfect result. This means a lot less stress for your pet, making their experience here much more pleasant! Pictures can then be e-mailed to a radiologist instead of sent via regular mail, and consults with specialists can be done much more quickly. Canyon Pet Hospital is proud to offer digital radiology as part of our diagnostic services.
The following categories will help explain reasons we may take radiographs of your pet:
Bones: We can use x-rays to look for fractures, osteoarthritis, back injuries from acute traumas or chronic pain, as well as specific inflammatory bone diseases. Radiographs CANNOT be used to look at cartilage and soft tissue injuries. However, if your pet has had a problem that has been on-going, often there are secondary boney changes that will occur where the tendons/ligaments/soft tissue attach which can be helpful in diagnosing your pets problem.
Lungs: We can use x-rays of your pet's lungs to diagnose asthma, acute or chronic bronchitis, cancer, mass lesions, heartworm disease and pneumonia or infection. X-ray of the neck and chest is also used to diagnose a collapsing trachea, which is a common cause of cough in smaller breed dogs.
Heart: X-rays of your pet's heart can be used to diagnose heartworm disease. Looking at radiographs of specific areas of the heart or for vascular enlargement may give us an indication of your pet's specific problem.
Abdomen: X-rays of the abdomen will help determine if your pet's symptoms are due to an obstruction or foreign body of some kind. They will also help us locate bladder and kidney stones, assess prostate size and give us a basic evaluation of the liver and spleen.
Dental: Dental x-rays will show abscessed or fractured teeth, tooth roots and if there is cancer of the tooth root and sinus tissue.