Diagnostic Services

South Devon Veterinary Hospital has an onsite CT scanner. We are the first on-site veterinary CT service in Devon or Cornwall using a medical standard fan beam CT scanner.

CT scanning uses x-rays to produce a 3D image, which means there is no superimposition of different structure. It allows accurate diagnosis and treatment planning of a wide range of conditions that previously was not possible for our cat, dog, rabbit, exotic and other patients.

Our Toshiba Aquilion Lightning is a brand new 16-row helical CT system. We have opted for a highly specified model with the latest advances developed in the human medical field rather than a secondhand system or a “veterinary specific” lower specified system. This brings a range of benefits to our patients, including:

• the ability to scan all body areas (including e.g. the chest) in thin slices with shorter scan times (avoiding movement artifacts), and in extremely high quality;
• extra wide gantry bore (allowing better patient positioning even for the largest dogs);
• sophisticated processing that greatly reduces artifacts from metal implants/ microchips chips etc;
• advanced exposure management that produces higher quality images at lower exposure settings.

Our service is provided in partnership with a team of Diploma holding radiologists from VetCT Consultants in Telemedicine (a UK based specialist service), ensuring every case receives specialist interpretation.

Advanced Endoscopic Examinations

South Devon Veterinary Hospital is pleased to be able to offer a full range of endoscopy services, including:

View inside the nose of a dog with rigid endoscope

• Flexible video endoscopy of upper and lower gastrointestinal tract and upper respiratory tract.
• Rigid endoscopy of nose, outer and middle ear, urinary tract and vagina.

We have heavily invested in new equipment to allow us to offer these services including medical grade video endoscopes/ rigid endoscopes and high definition cameras and image capture systems. By having a wide range of sizes of scopes and instruments, we are able to help with cases that may be outside the size range of many endoscopes – we have suitable instruments for every patient from a kitten to a Great Dane! This is different to many practices who may offer some endoscopy services, but be limited by only having basic equipment. See our facilities information for some pictures of our endoscopy suite.

South Devon Veterinary Hospital is equipped with state of the art digital x-ray facilities. This allows vets to take, develop and be interpreting radiographs within minutes allowing for quick diagnosis and clinical planning. Our system is a human medical quality system with a range of plate sizes suitable for all patients. Our x-ray room is lead lined including lead glass in the door to allow monitoring throughout the x-ray process. We also have a floating x-ray table which allows us to move the x-ray table without having to move the patient for quick positioning.

For a tour of our x-ray room visit our facilities page.