Pet Owners

Scheduled appointments for an outpatient ultrasound are available on Thursdays. Please consult your family veterinarian about a referral before making an appointment for an outpatient abdominal ultrasound. Once a referral is received, a team member will contact you to schedule your pet’s appointment.

If your pet has been scheduled for an outpatient ultrasound, we hope the following notes will clarify the process for you:

• Please withhold food from your pet for 12 hours prior to their appointment. (A small amount of water is okay.)

• Your pet will receive a light sedative for the ultrasound. We expect they will still be able to return home with you at the end of your 1-hour appointment.

• Our radiologist will provide a finalized ultrasound report with pertinent key images to your primary veterinarian on the same day the ultrasound is performed. Your primary veterinarian will contact you to convey the results of the study and discuss next steps.

• Please note: your pet’s belly will need to be shaved for this study.

• Outpatient ultrasounds will be conducted on stable patients only.

  • If a patient arrives for an appointment and is considered too unstable, we will update you and contact your referring doctor before proceeding.

  • If a patient arrives requiring immediate medical care, we will transfer the patient to the appropriate department (usually the Emergency department), with your permission and contact your referring doctor with an update.

Referring Veterinarians

If you would like to refer a patient for an outpatient abdominal ultrasound, please submit a referral form, or contact us to request this service for your patient. Doing so will facilitate a swift and accurate procedure for your clients while enhancing communication between our teams.

We have streamlined the process of scheduling an outpatient ultrasound. We hope the following notes and tips will help clarify the process.

Patient Referrals – What you need to know:

• All outpatients will receive an abdominal ultrasound.

  • If you want your patient to have a neck or thoracic ultrasound, this can be combined with an abdominal ultrasound as an outpatient procedure.

  • If you prefer only a neck or thoracic ultrasound be performed, the patient should be referred to our Surgery, Oncology, or Emergency department instead.

• We expect to sedate all outpatient ultrasound cases with a light sedative (butorphanol) to facilitate quality imaging and sample procurement if indicated.

• Outpatient ultrasound appointments are available on Thursdays by appointment.

• The patient must have been examined by their primary veterinarian within 30 days of receiving the referral.

• A referral and any records and bloodwork from the past year must be received before scheduling an appointment. Verbal referrals are not available.

  • If you want any FNA samples, we ask that at least a PCV/TP and platelet count have been performed in the last 30 days

• A member of our team will contact your client to schedule an appointment within 72 hours of receiving the referral and reviewing the records.

• Outpatient ultrasounds will be conducted on stable patients only.

  • If a patient arrives for an appointment and is considered too unstable, we will update the client and contact your hospital immediately before proceeding.

  • If a patient arrives requiring immediate medical care, we will transfer the patient to the appropriate department, with the owner’s permission, to provide initial care and contact your hospital with an update.

Radiologist Overview & Findings

• Our radiologists will provide the study results to the primary veterinarian who referred the patient; we will not contact the pet owner. Please get in touch with your client to discuss the patient’s ultrasound findings.

  • Our radiologist will call the referring veterinary facility within an hour of the scan with a verbal update. We will provide a finalized ultrasound report via rVetLink and fax or email to the referring veterinarian on the same day the ultrasound is performed.

  • If a life-threatening or emergent condition is identified during the examination, the radiologist will attempt to contact the referring veterinarian by phone immediately following the examination to discuss the findings and to recommend the patient be admitted through the Emergency department for stabilization/further diagnostics.

  • If the primary veterinarian in charge of the case will not be available for consultation by phone, please provide alternate contact information on the referral form.

  • Please explain to the client that their pet will be shaved for the study, and remind the owner to withhold food from their pet for 12 hours prior to their appointment. (A small amount of water is okay.)

Patients Who Do Not Qualify for Outpatient Ultrasound

Patients DO NOT qualify for outpatient ultrasounds if they are referred for any of the following conditions; please advise these patients to come in through the emergency room:

• Fluid in abdomen

  • Ascites

  • Hemoabdomen

  • Decreased serosal detail on radiographs (especially with a concern of an abdominal mass)

• Acute Anemia (please consult with a doctor or senior technician)

  *Chronic anemia patients may qualify for an outpatient ultrasound. A medical record review will be performed to determine eligibility.

• Elevated tbil (Bilirubin)

• Icteric or jaundiced

• Foreign material or obstruction

  • GB mucocele or obstruction

  • Bile duct obstruction

  • Extra-hepatic Biliary Duct Obstruction (EHBDO)

• Anorexia – Hyporexic patients may qualify for an outpatient ultrasound. A medical record review will be performed to determine eligibility.

• Acute pancreatitis – confirm clinical signs and discuss with the radiologist or a senior technician.

• Vomiting multiple times a day for multiple days –

  confirm clinical signs and discuss with radiologist or senior technician

• Fever of unknown origin

• Straining to urinate with little to no urine production

Every case is unique and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Any questions or concerns with booking an appointment.

Your primary veterinarian will perform any additional diagnostics, procedures, or treatments the patient requires. Alternatively, if the primary veterinarian requests, the patient can be scheduled with one of our specialty services for additional diagnostics or procedures that need to be performed, or they can be seen through the emergency department for more critical treatment.

We value and appreciate the trust you place in our doctors and staff.