Canine Services

Ultrasound

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An ultrasound exam is a way of looking inside your pet’s body (liver, kidneys, and intestines) without having to perform surgery. The ultrasound machine sends sound waves into the body and then listens for the echoes, the machine then uses these echoes to form a picture of the inside of your pet!

Ultrasound exams are performed for many reasons. In human medicine, most of us think about ultrasound exams during pregnancy. However, in veterinary medicine, because ultrasound is a safe, repeatable way to look inside the body, it has become a very useful tool for many other situations.

Ultrasound allows us to examine internal organs for location, size, shape, texture and blood supply. Unfortunately, ultrasound does not always give us a clear picture of how well the specific organ is working; this may be determined by other tests such as blood work or additional imaging.

Digital Radiology

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We are proud to announce that we now offer digital radiography to our patients. This technology is fairly new to the veterinary field. What differentiates this system from “traditional processing” is that no chemicals are used in the developing stage making it better for the environment and the images that veterinarians have to work with are much clearer and can be manipulated in ways previously not allowed. Additionally, these images are saved on a hard drive and can easily be shared with specialists via the internet or removable disk.

In House Laboratory Testing

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At MAH we understand the concern and distress you feel when your pet is sick. Our wide variety of in house laboratory testing gives us the capability to produce answers in a timely manner. Laboratory testing such as a complete blood count, chemistry panel, thyroid function test, and urinalysis help our veterinarians make an accurate diagnosis and monitor your pets’ response to treatment.

Laboratory testing is important and highly encouraged in healthy pets as well. Laboratory testing of the blood and urine of a healthy pet allows our veterinarians to establish what the “normal” values are for your pet by establishing baseline values to refer to in future testing. Pre-anesthetic blood work can identify pets at risk for complications from anesthesia and help our veterinarian determines which anesthetic technique to use.

All laboratory tests are a “snap shot” of the patient at the time the blood and urine samples are taken. Readings can vary from test to test for many reasons, so it is very important to remember that a healthy pet can have one or two test results that are outside of their “normal” range. Our veterinarians will take into consideration your pet’s clinical signs, health history, age, etc., when interpreting the laboratory test results.