Dog Ultrasounds: What Are They, and Why Would a Dog Need One? – Your vet just told you your dog needs an ultrasound. If you are thinking about an ultrasound and how it can help your vet, you are at the right post. Here, we explain Dog Ultrasounds: What Are They, and Why Would a Dog Need One?. Our furry friends can experience different illnesses and situations, like cysts, tumors, or ingesting foreign things that may cause internal blockages. Ultrasounds are a kind of diagnostic imaging process that utilizes sound waves to make real images of your dog’s inner body parts.
Veterinary ultrasounds are fast and painless tests that can be utilized to diagnose and evaluate a variety of internal organ issues in your pet. Also, they can help you keep track of your pet’s pregnancy.
What Are Dog Ultrasounds?
Often, our pets ingest products they should not or develop health problmes such as cysts or tumors that need treatment. Ultrasounds are a kind of imaging technology that can be leveraged to assess or diagnose health problems in your pet’s internal organs or to examine an animal’s pregnancy. They can transmit sound waves into your pet’s body to make an image of a particular part of your furry friend’s body in real-time.
Veterinary ultrasounds are a painless technology that can be used to show the structure and movement of the body’s internal organs, along with blood flowing through blood vessels.
Causes Your Pet May Need an Ultrasound
We can utilize an ultrasound to see your pet’s internal organs so that tumors, blockages, and other issues can be diagnosed. Our vets can use ultrasounds in our diagnostic lab to perfectly diagnose your pet’s medical problems, so we can plan and execute effective treatment.
Ultrasounds can aid a veterinarian in distinguishing soft tissue masses from foreign bodies or fluid, a task that may be difficult or impossible to fulfill with a digital X-ray. While ultrasound makes sound waves, these are not harmful to your dog or cat.
Situations That May Need An Ultrasound
Abnormal Blood or Urine Test Results
If your pet’s blood or urine tests show irregularity, your vet may suggest an abdominal ultrasound so they can evaluate the health of your pet’s internal organs, like the kidneys, liver, lymph nodes, urinary bladder, or other parts, to learn why the abnormalities are occurring.
Inspection of Soft Tissues
Ultrasound technology enables us the capability to inspect almost all soft tissues. Some of the most common parts of the body that ultrasounds can be utilized to assess include –
- Tendons
- Ligaments
- Thyroid glands
- Fetal viability and development
- Eyes
If abnormal tissue is found throughout an ultrasound, your veterinarian may also advise utilizing the ultrasound to help gather tissue samples from the infected area.
Ultrasound-Assisted Tissue Collection
These processes are mainly utilized to gather tissue samples –
- Tru-Cut biopsies
- Ultrasound-guided excellent needle aspiration
Your pet will likely to be sedated if your veterinarian will be suggesting an ultrasound-assisted tissue collection. Biopsies can be done in a less intrusive manner with ultrasounds than with surgeries.
Types of Dog Ultrasounds
These are the two types of ultrasounds that are mainly advised for pets, depending on their requirements and conditions –
Emergency Ultrasound
If your pet is facing an emergency, the ultrasound will typically focus on the chest and abdomen, so the veterinarian may be able to immediately identify whether your dog has a severe internal hemorrhage (bleeding) or pneumothorax (a condition in which gas or air gathers in the area surrounding the lungs). This can help us diagnose the issue instantly, so effective treatment can be planned.
Echocardiogram
Also known as cardiac ultrasounds, these complete ultrasounds we can closely evaluate the heart and its near structures, including the pericardial sac. This will tell us whether the heart is working perfectly and whether there is a malfunction in the heart.
Even though they are mainly painless, echocardiograms need many measurements and calculations. If your dog was currently diagnosed with a heart murmur or is showing signs of heart disease, they may be referred to experts for an echocardiogram.
Once your veterinarian finds an abnormal part of an organ, an ultrasound-guided biopsy can be performed to gather a sample of the affected tissue. This biopsy enables us to take a tissue sample, which can be examined with a microscope to show more information. In many conditions, this will result in a diagnosis.
How To Prepare Your Dog for an Ultrasound
Ultrasounds need many preparations depending on the part of the body to be inspected. Talk to your vet to find out how to getting your dog ready for its ultrasound. You may need to withhold food and water for between 8 and 12 hours, specifically for abdominal ultrasounds. We can best inspect the urinary bladder when it is full of urine. This is why your dog should not urinate for about 3 to 6 hours before the ultrasound, if it is possible.
The part to be inspected will likely be shaved so clear images can be produced. While most dogs will remain still and mutual throughout the ultrasound, some will need to be anesthetized. If biopsies need to be performed, your pet will need a heavy anaesthetized or short-acting anesthetic to help them relax throughout the procedure and prevent possible complications that could impede success. Your veterinarian will let you know if this is required.
Conclusion
Your veterinarian can conduct an ultrasound in real time. This means that the outcomes of the ultrasound can be obtained quickly. However, in some conditions, the images taken via the ultrasound will be required to be sent to a veterinary radiologist for further examination. In such cases, you may need to wait some days before the final result is figured out.
FAQs
Why does a dog need an ultrasound?
Ultrasound images are also highly helpful in assessing heart cases, abdominal organs, and the eyes, as well as the recognition of cysts and tumors.
What does it mean by the ultrasound therapy for dogs mean?
Therapeutic ultrasound is a painless treatment that uses high-frequency sound waves to promote healing in tissues. The ultrasound device releases these sound waves, which go deep into the infected tissues, causing micro-vibrations that can stimulate the healing process.