- By Betty Hegarty
- Around Town
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Winnie's Wags and TalesMy name is Winnie. I’m an 8 year-old Bassett hound. Betty Hegarty owns me. This week we’re going to learn about x-rays for your pet. I’m an expert at x-rays. In fact, I had to have one done a few weeks ago after I swallowed a corncob I’d stolen from the garbage. I had a terrible stomach ache and I was vomiting. My veterinarian at Colonial Veterinary Hospital, Dr. Brian Collins, thought the corncob may have been causing an obstruction in my intestines. He gave me a sedative and took a radiograph. Dr. Alain Giroux, the veterinary radiologist from Advanced Veterinary Diagnostics, read the radiograph. He explained to Betty that the corncob piece was in my descending colon, was small and it would pass out of my body without surgery. I was happy to learn that! Perhaps a radiograph can help you and your veterinarian learn more about your pet’s sickness. Dr. Giroux again gave us a lot of information for this week’s article. PET RADIOGRAPHS – BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES
To obtain more information regarding sickness in your pet, your veterinarian may indicate that your pet needs to have a radiographic study. The radiographic study consists of sending x-rays through the body part of interest. The medical term for the image that is obtained is called a radiograph; a non-medical way of describing this process is commonly termed “getting x-rays done.”
What parts of your pet’s body can radiographs (X-rays) evaluate?
1. X-rays are often used to evaluate the thoracic cavity (chest). They are essential to evaluate the lungs for any pulmonary disease. They also permit assessment of the size of the heart and to determine if the pet has congestive heart disease. Although radiographs to evaluate the heart do not permit precise evaluation of the size of all of the cardiac chambers, it does give your veterinarian a general idea of the cardiac size and the severity of the cardiac disease present.
2. Radiographs are very useful in evaluating the skeleton of your pet. To
diagnose any disease involving joints or bones of the limbs and of the spine, radiographs are often used. It is also much easier for your veterinarian to evaluate the degree of osteoarthritis or arthritis present in your pet’s joints with radiographs. Also, although not highly sensitive when bone cancer is first developing, a radiographic study can also aid in the detection of tumor development. Veterinary surgeons commonly utilize radiographs to evaluate the degree of a disease process involving a pet’s joints and also to characterize the severity and nature of fractures. It is essential that radiographs are obtained both prior to and after surgery to evaluate for the adequate repair of a fracture. Radiographs are also often used in screening for congenital or acquired joint abnormalities, such as of the elbow and other juvenile bone disease, such as involving the hips.
3. Radiographs of the skull and spine are also often helpful in evaluating
for disc disease and also to evaluate for any process that may involve the nasal cavity and any of the dental arcade (teeth). Abnormalities of the spine, including cancers, misalignments of bones, luxations or fractures of the spine may also be evaluated by utilizing radiographs.
4. Radiographs can be utilized for pregnancy evaluation, although this
should be fairly limited to evaluating the fetal count for the number of puppies that may be present since x-rays do emit radiation that might affect the fetuses. The degree to which a radiograph would affect a fetus remains unknown. An ultrasonographic study (which we talked about last week) is often better in identifying and characterizing whether the puppies are alive and if they appear healthy.
5. Radiographic studies of the abdomen are also commonly performed. This is often essential and helps rule out the possibility of the presence of foreign bodies which your pet may have ingested and which can cause intestinal obstruction and severe disease processes of the digestive system. This is why a radiograph was taken of Winnie after she became sick from eating the corncob. Since not all of them will appear opaque on x-rays, some foreign bodies or abnormal ingesta may not always be seen on radiographs. As discussed last week, abdominal ultrasound is also quite helpful in further evaluating the internal architecture of the abdominal structures, although radiographs will often provide your veterinarian with a general idea of the abdominal organs’ size and shape.
6. Radiographs are also quite often helpful in evaluating the possibility of
stones in the bladder. Depending on their nature, multiple stones will be easily seen on radiographs.
To summarize, radiographs are excellent for evaluating joints, most bones and the spine, the skull, the chest for lung lesions and growths, cardiac abnormalities, G-I tract foreign bodies which cause obstruction and, in some ways, the urinary system.
Who performs the radiographic study?
Most veterinarians have limited training in evaluating radiographs. Often, the limited training in radiographic study given to your veterinarian is only three to six weeks during his/her senior year in veterinary school. Of course, multiple classes in veterinary school involve radiology during the first three years of study. Although the general training will be sufficient for your veterinarian to evaluate for any major disease processes your pet may have, some refined lesions, for example, may be difficult to identify to an eye not as extensively trained. Multiple groups of veterinarians in this area utilize a Board-certified radiologist to review all of their x-rays. This gives them a greater sense of diagnostics, improves the overall chance of obtaining a diagnosis with the radiograph obtained and also permits them to have a written evaluation of the results of the radiograph and the possible disease process. Board-certified radiologists have been trained for an extended period of time, often three to four years, for the sole purpose of knowing all the details regarding radiology and radiological disease.
Do radiographs always find the abnormalities that are causing the disease process in your pet?
Although radiographs can be quite helpful in detecting certain disease processes, unfortunately not all disease processes can be identified with radiographs. Because of that, additional tests, such as blood work, other laboratory tests and ultrasound, which may be performed by a Board-certified radiologist, will further evaluate the causes of various disease processes that may or may not be identified radiographically. In some cases, diseases or lesions may be identified but their nature is difficult to specify. When that happens, biopsies, especially bone biopsies, are frequently necessary.
Radiographs are still quite new in the practice of veterinary medicine and radiographic studies are a very good adjunct to other diagnostics used, such as physical examinations and blood work.
Next week we’ll talk about a pet blood bank and how your pet can volunteer to give blood when another pet has a medical emergency.
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