Never Take the Health of an Indoor Cat for Granted

3 Tips For Better Veterinary X-Rays

Here are a few tips that will help ensure that you get the best and most accurate x-rays when taking x-rays of pets for veterinary purposes. 

#1 Clam Down The Patient

When dealing with pets and x-rays, it is very important for the pet to be calm. Some pets are really chill and may be capable of laying down how you want without any extra assistance.

However, for many pets, just stepping into your office produces anxiety in them. Other pets can't stand to be separated from their owners. If you have a pet that is really anxious and is not able to calm down and hold still, you are going to need to sedate them in order to calm the pet down. Use the smallest amount of sedation necessary for calming down the pet and keeping them still. Be sure to allow time for the sedation to take effect before going forward with the x-ray.

#2 Use Positioning Aids

Next, to ensure that you get the best x-rays possible, you need to have positioning aids available that you can use. Positioning aids are basically large foam mats that can be used to help support a pet's body in a specific position so that you get the most accurate x-ray possible.

The best positioning aids are covered with vinyl so that you can easily clean and disinfect them in between patients. Cloth positioning aids require a lot more maintenance to keep clean. 

There are a variety of positioning aids that you'll want to keep and use at your vet office.  You may want to have some v-shaped aids that you can use to wedge and position your pets. You may also want some square or flat aids to move the pet around as well. 

#3 Use Sandbags

Sometimes, you need to make sure that a pet does not move their limbs during the x-ray. Since you can't hold their limbs in place during the actual x-ray, you need to use aids to prevent their limbs from moving. 

Sandbags are a great way to keep pets limbs from moving. You will want to have a variety of different sized sandbags that are at different weights. For example, you are going to need to use a lot heavier sandbag on a Great Dane than you are on a kitty, so make sure that you have a variety of different weights. 

If you want to get the best x-rays of your patients, you need to make sure they are calm or sedated, use foam wedges to position them and use custom sandbags to keep their limbs from moving during the x-ray process. Click here to learn where to buy veterinary digital x ray machines.