GP Vet Ultrasound

21/05/2025

✳️. Successful scanning tip: ✅

Use other modalities to diagnose and manage your cases✅✅

✳️ I know I sound like a broken record here but radiographs are not the enemy!! 💀

✳️ This patient had a palpable abdominal mass and radiographs confirm this large mass in the caudo-dorsal abdomen causing ventral deviation of the colon.

✳️ You can also see there is something very odd in the cranial portion of these radiographs
- look at the chest area. What is that??! 😳😳😳

✳️ Lateral thoracic radiograph shows a diffuse nodular pattern.

✳️ With all of this information obtained via radiographs 🩻 we were able to provide additional information for the owner.

➡️ After a long discussion with the owner, specifically, costs and quality of life discussions, ultrasound was declined and the patient moved to palliative management.

✳️✳️Lesson: Successfuly scanning technique?
Answer: No matter how badly we want to ultrasound as many patients as we can, sometimes, the best thing for the patient and the owner is knowing when we don’t need to.

What do you think ❓❓

05/04/2025

Successful scanning tip:

✅ CUT YOUR ORGANS! ✂️

And I’m not talking about performing surgery 😷 Anyone who knows me will know how much I dislike surgery🔪 😂

Would you believe these still images were taken from the same exact kidney?? 😳‼️

Just as radiographs only capture a 2D image ◽️of our 3D organs 🧊 , a still ultrasound image will only give you a snapshot 📸 of the organ of interest.

This is why in radiology 🩻 we take orthogonal views. It’s the same in sonography but in ultrasound scanning, we have the benefit of not only viewing our organ in both longitudinal or transverse plane, we can view or cut it in so many different ways! 🔍 .

Make sure you are fanning, rocking, sliding, and twisting your probe to “slice” the organ in as many different planes as possible or you could be missing substantial pathology.

Happy scanning 🛜

23/03/2025

✳️ It always fascinates me how thin the colonic wall really is. 😳

✳️There’s literally a MILLIMETRE OR LESS ‼️ separating the rest of your body from actual faeces. 💩

✳️ Now we know that colonic surgery ✂️ is usually avoided unless absolutely necessary for a number of reasons (risk of contamination, wound dehiscence, sepsis) but here are some perfect images of the colon just chilling 😎😎there bravely protecting us from all the above with the thinnest band of tissue.

Gold ⭐ for the colon.

09/10/2024

Did you get it right?!
This is the strangest looking bladder stone I have ever seen. 😳

✅Note that you don’t need to have seen every single type of bladder stone to be able to diagnose on ultrasound.

✅While you can see clearly the strange projections, you can also see the distal acoustic shadowing that is evident.

✅This stone was mobile and not attached so was always on the dependent side.

Happy scanning!

08/10/2024

Panting means that image quality is poor and you can’t see organs or pathology properly 🔍! In the same way that movement blur makes radiographs difficult or even impossible to interpret 🩻, it’s the same with ultrasound.

Of course patient factors will determine the safety of sedation and the sedatives used 🩺💉 but don’t set yourself up for failure by trying to diagnose on a patient that’s panting like this.

Be kind to yourself and to your patient. Sedate

05/07/2024

Foreign body in the upper GI - proximal duodenum just past the pylorus.

05/07/2024

Happy Friday!
And of course it's Foreign Body Friday.
Old dog presented for vomiting 🤮 for 2 days. Blood💉💉 tests were unremarkable.
Radiographs 🩻 revealed a gas distended stomach and no obvious foreign body but scary looking duodenum dorsally. We were worried this was a GDV 😲😳

Ultrasound however revealed an upper GI Foreign body

Quick tip on scanning to find the pylorus of a gas filled stomach?

➡ Scan in right lateral recumbency with your probe underneath the patient. This eliminates the "dirty shadowing" you get with gas on ultrasound obscuring your view.

Patient went to surgery and a bone 🦴 was stuck at the proximal duodenum.

28/06/2024

28/06/2024

NEW WEEKLY POST- of the weird stuff our patients end up eating and how to find them on ultrasound.
Patient is a young cavoodle vomiting for 10 days on and off (!) 🤮 and just refusing to eat.
Clinically exam - Reasonably bright and alert, no obvious pain, nothing exciting on bloods or plain radiographs 🩻 Ultrasound showed a foreign body - in the jejunum.
Note this one DOES have the classic hyperechoic interface and distal acoustic shadowing of foreign material but notice on BOTH sides of the foreign body the intestinal wall is the same thickness and no fluid buildup noted oral to the foreign object.
This is a partial obstruction - fluid and gas can pass through.
What is the foreign body?
Check back tomorrow to find out 😎

24/06/2024

What is it about my ultrasound bag that cats love so much? 😎

Here is Buttercup enjoying sleep mode

24/04/2024

Reason I am running late for my next scan: clinic cat sleeping on my ultrasound case and of course I couldn’t disturb him!

19/01/2024

Gift from an awesome vet nurse 😍