This is an 11 year-old female DSH with a history of progressive vague malaise, inappetence, weight loss and muscle weakness. On physical examination, striking features were profound muscle weakness, skin tenting and non-palpable femoral pulses. She was not bradycardic. Blood biochemistry: urea 13.9 mmol/l (ref 3-10) creatinine 210 umol/l (ref <180) total calcium 3.17 (ref … Continue reading
Ultrasonography is surprisingly good as a rapid, readily available imaging modality for screening potential pneumothorax patients. Since cardiogenic pulmonary oedema, pulmonary thromboemboli, pneumonia, pleural effusions and intrathoracic neoplasia can also be detected it’s a powerful tool. The technique can be mastered by anyone with a few minutes to spare. Apply a micro-convex probe to the … Continue reading
Further to my last post re ureters, this is just a little video clip of an ectopic ureter running within the bladder wall at the level of the bladder neck. The patient is a young female Labrador… Continue reading
This was an interesting image to come across when scanning the abdomen of a vomiting 11 y.o. male Labrador. There is obviously a fluid-filled bladder. In this case, it also contains numerous echogenic particles creating a ‘snowstorm’ effect. However, the normal curved bladder profile is transected by a linear demarcation such that the dorsal part … Continue reading
Loud murmurs with thrills in young animals don’t, on the face of it, sound good. Certainly in aortic stenosis, pulmonic stenosis and PDAs louder murmurs are usually associated with more severe disease. This kitten is about 10 weeks old and has the most dramatic murmur with an obvious thrill palpable over much of the right … Continue reading
This isn’t rocket science but nice pics all the same. From a young dog with recurrent UTIs whom we screened for ectopic ureters. ….they weren’t ectopic. The jet from the right ureter enters obliquely from below and the left one is firing from above. Although one of the best texts does say that ‘..ureters can’t … Continue reading
This is the challenging case of a 5 y.o. domestic short-haired cat suffering daily seizures. To cut a long story short his cholesterol levels are 10 times the top end of normal for no apparent reason -blood results are otherwise unremarkable. From an ultrasonographic point of view this is his abdominal aorta (as seen from … Continue reading
There’s very little in the published literature about scanning the caecum in small animals -which is surprising since it is often encountered during abdominal examinations. Although dogs often have more gas in their colons and caeca, which sometimes makes it more difficult to make out, the canine caecum is also quite an elongated structure (usually … Continue reading
There are just some practices where every second case is really unusual….. This is a cat whose immediate problem is azotaemia due to a ureteral calculus (function of the other kidney is impaired -likely due to previous episodes of ureteral obstruction) The image on the left is a frontal plane view from the left … Continue reading
I’ve blathered on a lot about pneumonia in this blog. It’s still a bit of a revelation to me that, having gone the best part of twenty years diagnosing pneumonia twice a year I now seem to see them twice a week. This is a very ill elderly dog with a history of ‘bringing up … Continue reading
