Diagnostics | Ultrasound
Ultrasound is a valuable tool for diagnosing abnormalities in your pet that are otherwise difficult to find. It offers a non-invasive, non-painful means for diagnosing many diseases. It gives us essential information in evaluating fluid filled and soft tissue organ systems that may otherwise show no abnormalities on blood work or radiographs. It provides us an avenue to look into your pet's abdomen without invasive exploratory surgery. Though ultrasound often is non-specific in its findings, when used in conjunction with other diagnostic means, it can rule out a large list of problems that we may be otherwise suspecting based on other diagnostics performed. By using ultrasound-guided needle aspirates or biopsies, an otherwise normal-appearing ultrasound may give us the key to your pet's diagnosis.
Canyon Pet Hospital has the ability to do a basic scan, evaluate your pet for relatively safe biopsies and perform biopsies of suspicious tissue all in the same day. We can then provide quick results, typically within 24 to 48 hours, which can alter your pet's diagnosis or realm of treatment fairly quickly. This could be essential to your pet's ability to recover.
For example, if we see a lesion on x-rays that appears to be associated with your pet's intestinal tract, we can verify the origin of that lesion, determine the extent of that lesion and evaluate whether that lesion has metastasized or spread elsewhere in your pet's body. This will give us valuable information to determine whether surgical intervention or medical therapy is best for your pet. It can also allow us to monitor size or other changes of mass in lesions that are found during your pet's ultrasound.
Routine ultrasounds never require anesthesia and rarely require any form of sedation. Your pet will need to be fasted from food at least six hours prior to a scan. Because ultrasound waves cannot penetrate through hair, a large section of hair will need to be clipped in order for the coupling gel to provide us a clear picture at the skin's surface. Ultrasounds are typically not stressful for your pet and require anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to perform.
At Canyon Pet, ultrasounds are typically performed on a drop-off basis, or if you prefer, you may wait with your pet in the lobby until the procedure is ready to be performed. We recommend that certain breeds be scanned on a regular basis to look for breed specific conditions that can be diagnosed early with ultrasound.
Bladder: Ultrasound is useful in diagnosing bladder wall tumors or stones within the bladder that cannot be seen on routine x-rays. We can also obtain sterile urine samples to accurately diagnose urinary tract infections.
Kidney: Ultrasound is used to diagnose chronic fibroid disease, infection or local or diffuse cancerous disease. It can also detect presence of small discrete stones within the kidneys that cannot be seen on routine x-ray.
Intestines: Ultrasound allows us to measure thickness of the intestinal wall or small solitary tumors that give us greater insight into your pet's problem that cannot be obtained other means, even endoscopic biopsies, which provide only superficial tissue samples of your pet's intestinal wall. Lesions or abnormalities of the stomach wall can often be grossly apparent on ultrasound in a pet that has otherwise normal looking blood work and x-rays. Abnormalities such as intussuceptions, common in young dogs, and foreign bodies that are often not obvious on x-rays in their early stages, can often be diagnosed on ultrasound.
Spleen: Ultrasound of the spleen can detect benign enlargement, inflammatory response or cancer.
Liver: Ultrasound of the liver can help differentiate between benign enlargement, metabolic disease, infection and cancer. Needle aspirates of the liver are often indicated to help with your pet's diagnosis.
Gall bladder: Ultrasound of the gall bladder can determine if we are dealing with obstruction versus infection, which is very important in choosing the appropriate medication therapy.
Prostate: The prostate, often difficult to see on x-rays, can be easily seen on ultrasound to differentiate between benign prostate enlargement, prostate infections or cancer.
Uterus: The diagnosis of pregnancy and fetal heartbeats is commonly seen at 21 to 25 days after conception with ultrasound, which is significantly earlier than can be done with x-rays at 42 days. Ultrasound can also detect uterine infection (pyometra).
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