The ones that we do here are ultrasound and x-ray. As a person, you may think about the risk of x-ray as being radiation exposure. The same with even just a little bit with ultrasound. Our pets are exposed so infrequently or in such mild doses that I don't feel we have any risk associated directly with our patients.

If there's no sedation used, there's really no recovery needed, even with ultrasound. Most of our ultrasounds are done without sedation. If there is any calming medicine or sedation given, most of the time, our indoor cats can go back to their indoor home environment just fine. If they are outdoor cats, we may recommend that you keep them in for a day or two just until they're fully up to the capacity to be able to go back outside safely. They'll tell you right away, but we say, just give them a little time before they have all their outdoor faculties right around them.

The diagnostic imaging itself is not painful. If you've ever had an x-ray or even an ultrasound, you know that that in itself is not painful. However, if the pet is painful, getting in those positions that we need to get the right picture can be painful. In those situations, such as a fracture or a dislocated joint bone, we're almost always going to sedate your pet to provide us with the best diagnostic tools and your pet with the most comfort. That would be the best for the cat rather than struggling through it.

With x-rays, I tell clients that it's a noninvasive test that we do. So physically, they're going to go into our x-ray room, and they're going to have to lay on a table. Usually, for cats, it's not terribly uncomfortable. They're fairly cooperative with that. When we talk about our dogs, sometimes we have really big dogs that are harder to get up on a table. We can see big cats too, but most of our cats are still within the ability to be able to pick them up and put them. We also have positioning trays available to make that more comfortable for them if needed, whether they're lying on their back or whether their leg might be extended in order to get a certain view for that. But usually, if they're not painful, they're fairly cooperative throughout the procedure.

Most of the time, no, but it is possible depending on if your pet is painful, and they may not want to get in certain positions, and if your pet is unhappy coming to see us and very stressed out. We want to try to minimize stress, so we might offer some relaxing, calming medication. It depends on the situation, but I would say the majority of the x-rays and ultrasounds that we do, we do not sedate.