How does a veterinarian decide which cat diagnostic imaging tool to use for my cat?

As the name somewhat implies, diagnostic imaging provides images that are used to help us attain a diagnosis. It's as simple as that. So what do they entail? The most common are X-rays, radiographs if you will, ultrasound, and then some of the more advanced modalities would be things like MRI or CT scans. So how do you determine which one is the most applicable or the most useful in a situation? It varies tremendously on how the animal presents. If you're looking at bones, then most of the time a simple X-ray is going to be fine. And I say a simple X-ray just because they're very common. They're readily available at almost any veterinary clinic. If you need to look at the internal structure of the liver or the spleen or something like that, X-rays are probably not the best one for that. You're going to want something like an ultrasound that can actually see what the integrity of the internal components of that organ looks like. So that would be a case where maybe ultrasound might be more applicable. So rather than go through every device or every situation one by one, it really depends on what the presenting complaints or signs are that will dictate what type of imaging is best used.