Advanced Medical Diagnostics

If we are not able to diagnose your pet’s medical problem with basic diagnostic tests, we have four special service diagnostic sources available to us. The first two are in house procedures performed by board certified diagnosticians. Both use ultrasonography to image pet’s abdomens or chests to aid in providing a diagnosis.

Echocardiography is a painless procedure that helps us determine the contractility and overall effectiveness of the heart. We gain much more information than could be gathered from an x-ray image and this has become the most effective way to diagnose heart problems in pets. Dr Hattie Bortnowski is board certified in internal medicine and has a special interest in cardiology. She has been on staff at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine for the past 10 years. Her expertise is extremely valuable in the delicate handling of the heart conditions that some pets develop.

Abdominal ultrasound is equally valuable in detecting masses, thickening of intestinal wall segments and in overall identifying and clarifying which organs we are seeing changes in in the abdomen. Dr Deb Darien, a board certified radiologist, will come to our clinic and perform abdominal ultrasound. She will also provide a second opinion that can be quite helpful to our treatment plan.