What will a veterinarian be looking for using dog diagnostic imaging?

All of these are so variable, but it's okay. So orthopedic injuries, obviously I'm looking at fractures, dislocations, any change in the structure of the bone, if there's a tumor there, those kinds of things is what I'm looking for, for that. Where it gets a little hairier, you start getting into ultrasound, maybe MRI. A lot of times you're looking at soft tissue structures for that. So maybe you're looking for a tumor that's growing off as a soft tissue organ. Maybe you're looking for something with the integrity or lack thereof inside of an organ, like in the lungs or the spleen or the liver or things like that. So again, if people saw the last segment I talked about, you have to know what normal looks like before you can recognize abnormal. That's where it's difficult to answer this question with being very specific, because it just depends on what condition or disease process we're looking further into. I'm sorry, that's a real fake answer.

Depending on the type of image that we're looking at, for instance, x-rays, we would specifically look at the problem we are x-raying. If it is lameness, we might be looking for any type of bone abnormality or arthritis that's settling in. That would be something that would be fairly easy to see on an x-ray. If we are using ultrasound for diagnostic imaging, we look for fluid, mass, or just an abnormal organ that may not be functioning the way that it should because the ultrasound is a little more specific at looking at the organs.

In the chest, we look at heart size, check for any fluid in the lungs, or any masses that could be there. In the abdomen, we examine all the organs, ensuring nothing looks enlarged. We check for any masses, any signs of a foreign body. We would look at the spine and ensure there's no arthritis. And of course, if we were looking at joints, we'd ensure that we're not seeing any signs of a tear or fracture or damage or things like that.