Ultrasound: Painless Images Help Diagnose Illness or Disease

Orchard Park Veterinary Medical Center offers advanced ultrasound technology that includes color Doppler and the availability of storing images on a secure cloud or CD/DVD to be shared with you or your regular vet via email or CD/DVD.

Our internal medicine specialists and attending veterinarians have extensive ultrasonography training and are well versed in imaging and diagnostic ultrasonography. Whenever there is an unusual concern or any question arises, our veterinarians have the advantage of reviewing patient ultrasound images with our board-certified specialists in internal medicine, Dr. Kevin Kumrow, Dr. Melanie Hall, and Dr. Erin Toone.

How Veterinary Ultrasound Works

Diagnostic sonography, or ultrasound, is an imaging technique used to examine most parts of the body, but is especially useful in imaging soft tissue.

Sonograms are performed by using a hand-held probe, or transducer, placed on the patient and moved over the surface of the skin. The transducer emits very high frequency sound waves into the animal's body and measures when the waves bounce back. A computer interprets the pattern of sound reflection and creates either a still picture or a moving image on a monitor.

Another type of diagnostic ultrasound is called Doppler sonography. We use Doppler sonography to measure the velocity of blood flow in the body. This is especially useful in measuring the flow of blood in an artery, through a heart valve, or in the liver.

Uses for Ultrasound

Ultrasound is used frequently in veterinary medicine because it is painless for the animal and requires no chemicals, radiation, or entry into the body. It is safe to use on delicate tissue like the retina, the spinal cord, and developing fetuses.

Echocardiography is a Doppler ultrasound test used to create images of the heart. Our veterinarians use this technology for our cardiology patients, to painlessly view heart tissue and assess blood flow in the heart, valves, and arteries.

Uses for ultrasound include images of eyes, tendons, muscles, joints, and internal organs for illness or injury. Ultrasound is often used to safely diagnose or monitor pregnant animals. This technology may also be used in guiding the veterinarian when performing procedures such as biopsies or fluid drainage.