Abdominal Ultrasounds

Foreign. Hey guys, My name is Dr. Lara. Today I'm here with Mica. Micah is a nine year old female spade schnauzer, miniature schnauzer. She's coming in today because she is having an abdominal ultrasound. And so the topic of the video today is going to be more about abdominal ultrasounds or ultrasounds, what they can be used for and that kind of stuff. So abdominal ultrasounds in particular are good to go ahead and take a look at the abdomen. Now, the abdomen contains a number of different organs. It contains the urinary bladder, it contains the urethra, it contains the ureter and the kidneys. So that's all one system. If the dog's having kidney disease, if the dog's having some sort of like, if they're peeing a lot, that would be the system that we would typically check. Then the abdomen also has the intestines, so the small intestines, the large intestines, also the stomach. And so if dogs are having, or cats are having some sort of vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss or something like that, then that would be the system that typically we would check with ultrasound and then another set of organs. We have the liver. We also have the gallbladder. And so typically the gallbladder sits right in the middle of the liver lobes. And so if we have some different symptoms, like for example, one condition is called Cushing's, if dogs are having increased liver values, a lot of times we might see symptoms like increased water consumption, Pantene, increased appetite or decreased appetite. Those might be some indications for performing an abdominal ultrasound. And then we would be able to look at the density or what we call the echo texture of the liver. And then that would give us an idea of what's potentially going on there. Then also along those same lines of Cushing's, we also look at the adrenal glands. Adrenal is broken down into adrenal, which means right next to these are glands that sit right on top of the kidneys and they go ahead. If we have a dog that is producing too much steroids, those glands sometimes might be swollen. Other times there may be a tumor on one of those kidneys. And sometimes if dogs are not producing enough steroids, then those glands can be small. And so ultrasound would be a good modality of imaging that would help us to go ahead and evaluate those particular organs. Now, those glands sometimes can be kind of challenging to get. So sometimes the ultrasonographer will need to have the patient sedated for it, especially if they're bigger, just because they, they really have to get into or push the probe on the abdomen. So sometimes the animals need to be sedated. I want to say probably about 85 to 90% of the time we don't have to sedate the patients for an abdominal ultrasound. It is typically something that maybe lasts anywhere between 20 to 45 minutes, depending on what is actually being or how well the patient is doing, and also depending on what's going on with the patient and, you know, if we're able to evaluate what's going on and get an answer relatively quick, quickly. Now, something else that we can look at on the abdominal ultrasound is the spleen. Spleen is the reservoir for blood. And so typically if we have patients, most commonly when we do ultrasounds, we're looking at the spleen. It's because they're, they either have very pale gums, which is an indication that the patients are usually very anemic. And so we want to check to see if there is a tumor on the spleen. The. Let's see here. The other thing that you have in the abdomen are the lymph nodes. And so if we see some lymph nodes that are inflamed or are swollen, or if we see multiple lymph nodes swollen to a certain degree, that is something that can give us an indication that there is some sort of systemic disease going on. Depending on the level of enlargement or the size of the lymph nodes, that is something that could potentially go ahead and, and give us some clues as to what is going on. Now, the other thing when we are looking in the abdomen is we're also looking at the free space. So typically there should be no fluid in that free space. And so that is something that, you know, if there is fluid in that free space, a lot of times we will try to collect some of that fluid via what we call an abdominal synthesis. That's when we stick a needle into the abdomen. And this case it's going to be, you know, most of the time it is recommended to do what we call an abdominal synthesis ultrasound guided. So we put the probe on there, then we go ahead and see what we're looking for, and then we grab it with the needle at the very same time so we know exactly what it is we're poking. That is something. If we have some sort of cancer or something like that, that is a potential reason for the fluid in the abdomen. Otherwise, if they're bleeding into abdomen, that is a possibility. So I'm just going to go over the Organs, really quick just to touch base on the different things that are or the different organs or things that we can evaluate. In the abdomen with an ultrasound, we have the intestine, so we have the large intestine, the small intestine, the stomach. Then we have the liver, which sits right at the top of the abdominal cavity. Then we also have the pancreas, which actually, you know, if you have dogs that are vomiting and they are potentially having pancreatitis, or if they have very, very high pancreas or values, the ultrasound is going to be a good form or modality of imaging to go ahead and take a look at the pancreas to see if there are indications that maybe there's something more complicated going on, maybe like a tumor or an abscess. Otherwise it could be straightforward pancreatitis. Then as we go through it, we have the mesentery, which is just a webbing of the intestines. We have the lymph nodes, which we talked about. We have the kidneys. We have the ureter, which is a tube that runs from the kidneys. So sometimes if there's a stone that gets stuck in that, that can cause major problems, and then it goes to the bladder. So if we're looking for bladder stones or a tumor in the bladder or thickening the bladder wall, that would be something else. Then the urethra, which is a tube that runs from the bladder to the outward opening, whether it's the vulva or the penis, for the males. And then, let's see here, we have the adrenal glands, which we mentioned already. We talked about the gallbladder, which sits inside of the lobes of the liver, and we have the free space in the abdomen. And I think that's pretty much it. Otherwise, if you guys have any questions about this particular modality of imaging, please leave in the comment box what I typically tell people. This is a quote that I got from one of the specialists that I work with. Each modality of imaging is complementary, and that problem, and that's the same for the tests. A lot of the tests are complementary to each other. So we will not always be able to get everything that we get on one test that we can on another test. So sometimes people ask me, what. What's better than the other? Well, some are better for certain things and some are better for other things. And so you always have to keep that in mind. So if your vet recommends multiple tests that are looking at, you know, either the liver or something like that, there is reason to their madness. And so just something to keep them back of your mind. Hope you guys found this video helpful. Give us a thumbs up if you found it informational subscribe and if you know somebody who needs to watch it, please share it with them. Thanks for watching and have a great day. Sam.