Dog X-ray Can Save Your Dog From Death

01 Aug 2008

1 Aug, 2008 Pet Care

X-rays can be used to diagnose or detect many conditions and disorders in dogs. Bone fractures, bladder stones and tumors can easily be detected through this technique. Sometimes dogs swallow the most ridiculous things that can become lodged in their gastric-intestinal tract such as nails, rocks, fishhooks, safety pins, bones, toys etc…all these things can cause serious damage if not detected soon enough. Some dogs may also suffer from hereditary dog illnesses like elbow dysplasia, hip dysplasia, mitral valve disease, cardiomyopathy and most of these diseases can be identified using dog x-rays.

Hip dysplasia results into severe arthritis in dogs. In this dog illness, the socket joining the demur to the pelvis is shallow. The caput i.e. the ball of the femur is not round and smooth but is misshapen. This causes a lot of friction within the joint as it moves. This results in severe arthritis in the dog. The dog’s natural repair system will repair itself by adding new cartilage. However, the cartilage repair is a relatively slow process because the cartilage lacks blood flow, which is necessary for rapid bodily repairs. The degraded joint may not be able to support the body weight as expected. The joint then becomes inflamed leading to a cycle of cartilage damage and inflammation. The bones of the joint may also develop osteoarthritis, which is visible on a dog x-ray as small outcrops of bone. Hence, the dog x-rays can help us to recognize these fractures so that we can treat them efficiently.

However, taking x-rays require dogs to remain still. Sometimes, the dog squirms and moves during the x-ray. This results in unclear and distorted images of the dog’s insides, which can lead to wrong diagnosis. Sometimes, it so happens that a dog having hip dysplasia is not diagnosed because the veterinary surgeon cannot make out the slight shift of the bone. The dog is already living in infinite pain. On top of this, even after the dog is x-rayed and found to have nothing wrong in his system, do not think the efforts have been wasted. X-rays should always be neatly filed up for future references. To determine the dog illnesses, the x-ray is important and so it is vital for the owner and the vet to position the dog properly on the table and take some measures to keep it still. Some dogs are naturally obedient and won’t move a muscle if his or her owner instructs so. Sometimes, a light anaesthetic is registered to keep the dog still. if the dog is being x-rayed for the muscles, anesthesia is unavoidable.

It happens more often than not, that the dog x-rays might not turn out to be conclusive. In such cases, one should reserve breeding until the x-rays show something definite. By the time the dog is fully-grown the dog x-rays will reveal the proper status of the dog’s bone development. The OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) will not classify hips in dogs until they are two years of age.

There are other dog diseases like blood clots, esophageal achalasia and bladder stones which x-rays can detect. People are having their dogs x-rayed these days to detect possible bone fractures that the dog might have.

X-rays, therefore, have become inevitable in the field of veterinary practice. In this way, dog x-rays can help to cure the dog illnesses that trouble our cuddly friends.