Diagnostic Services

At Arena Vet Hospital we offer excellent state of the art Digital X Ray.

X-rays are often required for diagnosis of many conditions, orthopaedic cases, chest problems such as assessment of the heart, or other cases that may require assessment of abdominal organs for example.

To x-ray a cat or dog, we usually need to give a sedative or a general anaesthetic.  This allows us to take really good quality radiographs that are of huge benefit to us in the diagnosis of a case.

As we offer digital x-ray at the practice, your pet’s x-rays can be viewed on a computer screen and the contrast of the x-ray altered and the image enlarged.

Routine health checks are important to ensure your pet is in tip top condition and identify any problems early.

During a routine health check, your pet will be checked over by one of our vets from nose to tail!!!  The ears and eyes will be examined, we will examine the mouth and teeth.  A chest examination involves auscultation of the heart and lungs.  This is particularly important in breeds prone to heart problems or older patients, who more frequently suffer with heart or lung disease.  The abdomen (your pets belly) will be examined by touch and gentle squeezing to identify if any organs feel enlarged or abnormal.  Your pet will have a temperature check.  As part of the routine health check, it may be advised to run a routine blood panel to determine liver and kidney health and rule out conditions like diabetes.  Most routine bloods are run in our in house laboratory so we will have results for you that day.

Early diagnosis plays a key role in the success of treating certain conditions so routine health checks and screens are important for good health.

An eCG, electrocardiogram is often indicated in the assessment of patients with heart disease.

Carrying out an eCG is an non-invasive and fairly simple procedure which doesn’t cause any stress or discomfort for your pet.  The procedure involves attaching your pet to a machine via 4 clips or electrodes and obtaining a printout or graph of the electrical activity through the heart.  The electrodes can pick up electrical impulses generated by the polarization and depolarization of cardiac tissue and translates this into a waveform.  The waveform is then used to measure the rate and regularity of heartbeats and can indicate the presence of any damage to the heart.

The information we get from an eCG can help us in choosing the correct medication for particular cardiac cases and acts as a tool in monitoring the progression of disease in a patient.

Blood pressure monitoring has become a vital part of small animal practice.  The ability to measure and monitor blood pressure trends provides important data about a patients cardiovascular status and may help define an approach to treatment.  It is a simple procedure and just requires placement of cuff on your pet’s forelimb or tail.  The cuff will inflate and a reading will be recorded.  It is normal for us to repeat this a number of times and an average reading will be calculated.

Ultrasound is a useful imaging method used to diagnose pregnancy.  The best time to perform an ultrasound to detect a pregnancy in a dog is at least 30 days post-breeding, and at least 16 days post-breeding in the cat.  As foetal number cannot be accurately judged with ultrasound, we will not be able to give you an exact number of puppies or kittens but it is very exciting to see the little heartbeats and movement of the puppies or kittens on the screen.  Your pet will usually be shaved on the belly to allow us to perform the procedure.