PAWS Portable Animal Western Sonography, Inc.

06/02/2026

05/08/2026

Peritoneal fluid (free abdominal fluid)

peritoneal effusion:

* Spreads diffusely throughout the abdomen
* Collects in ventral and dependent areas
* Clearly outlines organs such as the liver, spleen, and intestinal loops
* Causes intestinal loops to appear floating or separated
* Often obscures normal serosal detail when moderate to large

05/08/2026

-Marked left retroperitoneal inflammation and fluid/edema
-Mild right renal nephrolithiasis without the acute inflammatory changes seen on the left
-Mild free peritoneal effusion around the urinary bladder
In a cat, you can distinguish retroperitoneal fluid vs peritoneal fluid on ultrasound mainly by how the fluid distributes around key structures.

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Peritoneal fluid (free abdominal fluid)

In cats, peritoneal effusion:

* Spreads diffusely throughout the abdomen
* Collects in ventral and dependent areas
* Clearly outlines organs such as the liver, spleen, and intestinal loops
* Causes intestinal loops to appear floating or separated
* Often obscures normal serosal detail when moderate to large

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Retroperitoneal fluid

Retroperitoneal fluid in cats:

* Stays dorsal and more localized
* Commonly centered around:
* kidneys
* adrenal region
* psoas muscles
* Tracks along fascial planes rather than filling free space
* May create a hypoechoic “halo” around the kidneys
* Does not typically surround intestines or liver diffusely
* Intestinal loops usually remain in normal position

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Key practical differences

* Peritoneal fluid: surrounds everything, changes organ interface, causes floating bowel
* Retroperitoneal fluid: dorsal, kidney centered, respects tissue planes, minimal bowel displacement

05/08/2026

One of the challenges when starting out with abdominal ultrasound is distinguishing ingesta from a true gastric foreign body and recognizing intestinal foreign bodies. How many of you follow the GI tract from stomach to colon? It’s a great skill to obtain. . Food and ingesta can create mixed echogenicity, gas artifacts, and even acoustic shadowing that may mimic a foreign object.

Things that make me more suspicious for a foreign body:
• Strong clean acoustic shadowing
• A distinct geometric or sharply marginated structure
• Material that does not move or layer naturally with patient repositioning
• Focal gastric wall irritation around the object
• Persistence on repeat imaging after fasting

Sometimes asymptomatic dogs surprise us. I’ve had several incidental findings where the patient presented for something completely unrelated, yet there was a strongly shadowing object sitting in the stomach. No vomiting. No diarrhea. No GI signs at all.

For these cases, especially if the object appears discrete and persistent, I would recommend:
• Repeat scan after appropriate fasting if uncertain
• Radiographs for correlation
• Monitoring for progression of clinical signs
• Surgical or endoscopic consultation if concern remains high and specialist report recommends.

This particular case ended up being a true gastric foreign body. They performed a gastroscopy and retrieved it successfully.

Can anyone guess what it was? 👀

05/08/2026

Fasting matters for every abdominal ultrasound.

A full stomach and gas can hide important details in the stomach wall especially when we’re looking for subtle abnormalities or tiny nodules that may be under 2 cm and not causing any symptoms yet. These examples range from a 15 lb dog to a 126 lb dog, and in each case an empty stomach allowed much better evaluation of the stomach wall layers and possible lesions.

The goal isn’t to alarm owners many of these findings simply need monitoring but you can’t monitor what you can’t see.

One of the biggest lessons in ultrasound training is learning what normal looks like first. I spent over a year scanning normal abdominal organs before actively searching for abnormalities. Once your eye truly knows normal anatomy, abnormal findings start to stand out immediately.

So one of the best habits in abdominal imaging:
✔️ Scan as many normal abdomens as possible
✔️ Fast every patient before abdominal ultrasound whenever possible
✔️ Don’t let food and gas interfere with important views

Normal teaches your eye how to recognize abnormal

05/08/2026

Why the ICJ Matters in Every Feline Ultrasound Scan 🐈🩺

The ileocolic junction (ICJ) — where the small intestine meets the colon — is one of the most important areas to evaluate during abdominal ultrasound in cats. Even when the scan is being performed for unrelated concerns, imaging the ICJ can provide critical diagnostic information.

Why?

• Common site of disease
The ICJ is a frequent location for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), lymphoma, infectious processes, and focal thickening that may not be present elsewhere in the GI tract.

• Early changes can be subtle
Cats are masters at hiding illness. Mild wall thickening, loss of layering, enlarged regional lymph nodes, or altered motility at the ICJ may be the first clue to significant gastrointestinal disease.

• Helps differentiate normal vs abnormal bowel
Comparing the ICJ to adjacent bowel segments helps assess symmetry, layering, and transmural changes that can guide next diagnostic steps.

• Important for chronic GI signs
Vomiting, weight loss, diarrhea, decreased appetite, or intermittent symptoms can all originate from pathology centered at the ICJ.

• Small area, big diagnostic value
A complete abdominal ultrasound should always include the ICJ as missing it can mean missing the diagnosis.
Routine, systematic scanning matters.The ICJ should never be skipped in feline abdominal imaging.

IBD FelineLymphoma VeterinaryImaging SmallAnimalMedicine

08/09/2025

We will be closed from August 13th to 17th and will reopen for appointments starting August 18th. Thank you for your understanding!

08/04/2025

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