Radiology

Radiographs, or X-rays, are one of the most common and useful diagnostic tools in medicine. After performing a thorough examination, veterinary diagnostic tests are sometimes necessary to identify the underlying cause of your companion’s illness.

The Pet Health Center uses veterinary X-rays to examine your pet’s bones, lungs, heart, abdomen, oral cavity, and other areas and for diagnosing and monitoring many medical and surgical conditions. If we suspect your pet has a fractured bone, has swallowed a foreign object, or is suffering from a heart problem, an X-ray can tell us what we need to know. When performing routine pet wellness examinations or diagnosing an illness, what our veterinarians can’t see is often just as important as what they can.

As part of our commitment to provide you with the best veterinary medical care for your pet, WesternU Pet Health Center has invested in a state-of-the-art digital X-ray machine. There are many important advantages to digital X-rays:

• They can be immediately viewed on a computer monitor.
• The clear, detailed images can be manipulated to get a better view of your pet’s bones and internal organs, leading to a faster, more accurate diagnosis.
• They take less time to process, which means less time for your pet on the X-ray table (and less stress) and less waiting for you.
• No harsh chemicals are needed to develop the images, reducing potential harm to our staff and the environment.
• Advanced diagnostic capabilities are an extremely important part of veterinary medicine, in part because we can’t simply ask our patients what is wrong. Our investment in digital X-ray technology reflects our commitment to offer you and your pet the best, most comprehensive healthcare available.

Ultrasound

The Pet Health Center is able to provide abdominal ultrasounds when needed, which allows us to evaluate the health of many of the internal organs. Ultrasound utilizes high frequency sound waves to generate pictures of what is going on inside the body. Ultrasound examination can be used to evaluate the size, shape, location, internal structure, and function of hidden internal organs. These non-invasive, painless exams can detect the abnormal presence of fluid and the differences in organ tissue density for both the chest and abdominal areas. Ultrasound can also be utilized for evaluating the status of a pregnancy and as an emergency diagnostic tool to detect internal bleeding.

In the chest, diagnostic ultrasound is useful to look for tumors or fluid, and to evaluate the heart. In the abdomen, diagnostic ultrasound is especially valuable for imaging the liver, spleen, gall bladder, kidneys, lymph nodes, adrenal glands, and urinary bladder. We also use ultrasound to guide us in diagnostic procedures such as urine collection and the biopsy of internal organs and tumors.

Because it is harmless to a developing fetus, veterinary ultrasound is often used to diagnose pregnancy and monitor pregnant animals.

As we strive to provide our patients with the highest quality medicine and diagnostic testing, we are pleased to offer ultrasound as one of our diagnostic capabilities.