Digital Radiography
At Anderson Animal Hospital, we use the latest in advanced digital radiology as part of your pet's diagnostic care.
Radiographs, or x-rays, are one of the most important diagnostic tools in veterinary medicine. They allow us to view the shape, size, and location of organs inside your pet's body and are extremely helpful for diagnosing and monitoring many medical and surgical conditions. X-rays are useful for examining your pet's bones, lungs, heart, abdomen, oral cavity, and other areas of the body. An x-ray can detect a fractured bone, tumor, or heart problem and locate an obstruction or foreign body in your pet's stomach or intestine. X-rays and ultrasound are often utilized together for an even more accurate diagnosis.
Anderson Animal Hospital uses a state-of-the-art, digital x-ray machine. Compared to x-rays produced by a traditional machine, digital x-rays offer many benefits for your pet, you, and our staff. Our digital x-ray technology produces clear, detailed images on a computer monitor that our medical team can manipulate to get a better view of your pet's bones and internal organs to make a more rapid and accurate diagnosis. Digital x-rays are easier and faster to process than traditional film x-rays, resulting in less time on the x-ray table (and less stress) for your pet. The harsh chemicals once necessary for developing x-rays are not needed for digital x-rays, reducing potential harm to our staff and the environment.
Because digital x-ray images can be saved on a computer, they can be transmitted quickly by email to outside specialists if a referral or second opinion is necessary.
Endoscopy
Endoscopy is a non-invasive method of looking inside the esophagus, stomach, and intestines by passing a thin flexible tube with a small camera lens attached to its end through the mouth and into the upper gastrointestinal tract.
At Anderson Animal Hospital, we use endoscopy to:
- Visualize and examine the inner surface of the esophagus, stomach, and intestines
- Remove foreign material from the stomach and esophagus
- Collect biopsies of the stomach and intestines
Even though anesthesia is required to keep your pet at ease during the endoscopic procedure, the amount of anesthesia and recovery time is minimal. Endoscopy is often indicated when routine blood, urine tests, radiographs, and ultrasound do not give the complete diagnostic picture.
The benefits of endoscopy over exploratory surgery include no surgical incision, shortened anesthetic time, decreased inflammation, less physiologic stress and discomfort for your pet, and an earlier return to normal function.
Ultrasound
Ultrasound is a pain-free, totally non-invasive technique that uses high-frequency sound waves to produce a real-time moving image of your pet's internal organs. It allows us a look at your pet's internal organs, chest, and abdomen without surgery or sedation. Dr. Anderson performs ultrasound examinations for a wide-range of diagnostic cases including equine reproductive cases and Dr. Petker is skilled at performing cardiac ultrasound. Overall, ultrasound is particularly useful in viewing your pet's abdominal organs and performing pregnancy evaluations. Ultrasound is also useful in evaluating your pet's heart functions and is used for bladder scans.
In most cases, an ultrasound procedure is relatively brief and your pet is able to go home the very same day. Most importantly, though, an ultrasound will help us make an accurate diagnosis of your pet's condition and provide effective treatment recommendations.
In-House Laboratory
Anderson Animal Hospital maintains a full-service diagnostic laboratory that allows us to perform complete blood counts, chemistry profiles, electrolytes, urinalysis, fecal exams, cytology evaluations, and other valuable tests for your pet. With our advanced laboratory technology, we are able to receive fast and accurate results, helping to determine your pet's diagnosis and what treatment therapy is required.
Our complete in-house laboratory is particularly essential to our emergency and critical care cases. We also offer several tests as part of your pet's wellness exam and specialized testing if you pet is in his or her senior years. We can often have results within 15 minutes for many tests.