ultrasonography

Congenital interruption of the caudal vena cava in a Bulldog with diversion of flow into the azygous vein

The patient, a neutered female adult Bulldog of unknown exact age was presented for investigation of skin problems, keratoconjunctivitis and lethargy. As part of the investigation routine abdominal ultrasonography was performed. However, routine things are not always routine…… The caudal vena cava is…….unusual….. Following the cava forwards things become more bizarre: Flow from the cava … Continue reading

29/06/2017 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Hair balls: a sonographic challenge

On Friday I saw a pup with a PDA, another slightly older dog with a right gastric-t0-cava portosystemic shunt and a cat with a hairball. Of these, the hairball was the least glamorous but considerably the most challenging. The patient was a 9-year-old Maine Coon with a 6 month history of progressive weight loss and … Continue reading

25/06/2017 roger Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Colonic torsion in a dog: ultrasonographic findings

The unfortunate patient in this case is a 4 y.o. FN German Shepherd. She has a history of chronic gastrointestinal disease. Previous sonography demonstrated severely thickened ileum and colon. TLI was subnormal. Full-thickness gut biopsies yielded a diagnosis of chronic enterocolitis. Subsequently, 6 months prior to the torsion, an apparent ileal impaction necessitated resection of … Continue reading

10/06/2017 roger Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Pulmonary oedema as judged by lung ultrasound: recent advances

Lung ultrasound remains a hot topic with the publication this year of another couple of great articles. Tommaso Vezzosi and colleagues look at the diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound (LUS) for cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and correlate findings with ACVIM consensus staging system. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvim.14692/pdf Reassuringly they report that: B lines are rare or absent in @90% … Continue reading

07/06/2017 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography

‘Urinary cyst’ in a dog: why you should measure creatinine in prostatic cyst fluid

Prostatic cysts are a common finding -particularly in entire male dogs. These are aetiologically distinct from para-prostatic cysts which are thought to form within remnants of the mullerian ducts adjacent to the prostate. Intra-parenchymal microcysts are almost always present when hyperplasia is pronounced. Larger fluid-filled spaces are often termed ‘retention cysts’: these generally contain prostatic … Continue reading

07/06/2017 roger Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Focus on testicles

One of the cardinal rules of serious small animal sonography is ‘don’t forget to scan the ovaries, uterus and testicles’. At least in the UK it’s easy to forget that they’ve not always been removed!. A couple of recent examples: Firstly a young unilaterally-cryptorchid dog presented with acute abdominal pain. Impressively, the first opinion practitioner … Continue reading

25/05/2017 roger Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized

Lung ultrasound in feline asthma

Acute severe dyspnoea is a common, life-threatening condition in cats. The principal differentials being: cardiogenic pulmonary oedema asthma/allergic airway disease pleural effusion of various causes pneumothorax ruptured diaphragm Ultrasonography is a useful tool to distinguish between these and offers major advantages in that it can usually be performed quickly, without manual or chemical restraint by … Continue reading

15/05/2017 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Acute haemorrhagic diarrhoea syndrome (AHDS) in dogs: possible association with acute pancreatitis

AHDS (or HGE as it is probably more widely known) has long remained an enigmatic condition. Despite being common and serious, a definitive cause remained elusive. Cicrumstantial evidence supported the involvement of Clostridia but we lacked an explanation as to why only a few dogs develop signs when Clostridia are ubiquitous in gut flora… ….until … Continue reading

14/05/2017 roger Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized

Portosystemic shunts : to operate or not to operate?

It does sometimes feel as though shunt-ology could be a discipline in its own right: they seem to occupy an enormous part of our time and just when you think you know everything there is to know about shunts there’s another layer of complexity around the corner. A fundamental and thorny issue is the matter … Continue reading

13/05/2017 roger Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Neoplastic fever in dogs

Neoplastic fever is an important differential for pyrexia. However, it’s easy to overlook the possibility and it’s also a phenomenon about which we know relatively little. An excellent summary from human medicine can be found here: http://www.clinicalcorrelations.org/?p=7966 I suspect that, as in people, hepatic masses (especially metastases) or lymphoma are the commonest culprits in dogs. … Continue reading

26/03/2017 roger Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized