Question of the Day

Alcohol, ultrasound gel, and clipping of hair all minimize the amount of air trapped in hair between the ultrasound transducer and the skin and improve ultrasound image quality. Trapped air interferes with the ability of the ultrasound waves to pass from the transducer head into the tissue and be reflected back to generate an image.

If the animal is especially dirty, shaving and cleaning can help to remove this debris that further interferes with obtaining a diagnostic ultrasound.

In horses, it is not always practical to clip the entire abdomen or chest, so you can use copious alcohol to wet the hair and obtain a diagnostic image.

Sedation can help to keep an animal still during the procedure, but general anesthesia is almost never indicated.