Pets have a special place in a lot of households. They’re often considered as members of the family, with most families treating them like a younger brother or sister. Their presence can be enough to remove their owners’ stress, making them a very good companion for anyone out there.
However, unfortunate events do happen and they can sometimes land man’s best friend in the vet’s clinic. Now, the vet will surely take good care of fido and owners can be rest assured that their pets will be okay in no time, but knowing a little bit about the veterinary diagnostic equipment found in many clinics won’t hurt. In fact, it’ll help regular people and veterinarians to assess the clinic if it’s lacking or needs an upgrade.
X-Rays, Dental Radiographs, and Orthopedics
One of the most common issues that require a diagnosis from the vet is when a person’s adorable pup accidentally swallows an object that causes intestinal blockages, broken bones, or damaged teeth. These problems are often diagnosed by taking a radiograph or an x-ray of the targeted area, so vets could have a better grasp of how serious the situation is. Radiographs are taken and developed by x-ray machines, which displays the images unto a computer screen, and then using software technology to create a detailed picture.
Dental x-rays undergo the same basic process, but utilises a machine dedicated for dental imaging. Now, there are a lot of concerns about whether dental x-rays are truly safe or not. Generally, x-rays do emit radiation and they do expose patients to them. But the amounts of radiation they release are very small and are equivalent to being exposed to natural radiation (from the sun, outer space, the earth, etc.) for a couple of days to years. Www.nhs.uk also adds that “Being exposed to X-rays does carry a risk of causing cancer many years or decades later, but this risk is thought to be very small.”
Advanced Diagnostic Imaging Tests
There are going to be instances that the basic veterinary diagnostic equipment won’t be able to provide the results needed to fully figure out the issue, especially for abdominal organs. Radiographs and blood panels could only do so much, and while they do provide accurate diagnostics most of the time, they don’t always give out the proper diagnostics for a pet’s symptoms. When this happens, a more advanced and in-depth test is needed, which is where sonograms come in.
Ultrasound, also known as Ultrasonography, can give a more detailed look into the structural health of a pet’s viscera, in a way that x-rays can’t. Images are made by using high-frequency sound waves that produce an echocardiogram. Some samples of ultrasonography tests are MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), Myelogram, and CAT or CT Scans (Computer Axial Technology Scan).
Anaesthetic Monitoring
In the event that a pet might have to undergo surgery, vets usually sedate them by using anaesthesia. During this stage, a pet’s vital signs must be closely monitored by a professional anaesthetist, to make sure that everything is stable. The same way dental chairs have an important role to play between patient and dentist, properly functioning anaesthetic monitoring machines can be a life-or-death situation. These machines monitor the pet’s pulse rate via the Pulse Oxymeter, the pet’s temperature with Temperature Probe, and the pet’s heart rate and rhythm are monitored with the Electrocardiogram (ECG).
Being a part of the family and household, a pet’s life is equally important to the owners who feed and shelter them. Making sure that a veterinary clinic has the proper veterinary diagnostic equipment to help make your animal companions feel better is an important observation that any pet owner must do. Faulty equipment often means a faulty practice is at play, and faulty practices should be avoided because they can cause irreparable consequences.
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