GP Vet Ultrasound

GP Vet Ultrasound Mobile vet ultrasound providing comprehensive abdominal ultrasounds for GP clinics around SE QLD - Toowoomba, Ipswich, Gold and Sunshine Coast.

On site tutorials can also be arranged.

30/03/2026

We’ve all been there!

❗️Dog weak or collapsed
❗️Deathly pale gums
❗️Distended, fluid filled abdomen

✳️. FAST scan - flocculant fluid
✳️. Tapped when safe (coags normal)

❗️It’s blood 🩸

❓No history of trauma so why blood? You scan the abdomen a bit more carefully to find the source.

In my experience, the spleen will often contract in severe blood loss which makes it smaller in general and sometimes harder to find.

✅ Remember your normal anatomy and remember your landmarks for finding the spleen.

1️⃣. R lateral recumbency - this is my usual position for emergency scanning

2️⃣ Caudal to costal arch. Sweep along this arch to find the body

3️⃣ If you’re struggling - look for the left kidney. Once you’ve found it in the longitudinal plane, slide cranially off the left kidney. Splenic body should be right there.

Of course stabilise your patient as best as you can and take your time to check the spleen especially if your index of suspicion for a bleeding mass is high.

✅ Finding the cause will help the owner make informed decisions on treatment and management.

Follow for more tips on scanning

26/02/2026

Target 🎯 lesions!

These are usually well defined , mostly rounded lesions with a hyperechoic centre and surrounded by a hypoechoic rim.

✳️ Usually seen in the liver and the spleen

✳️ Multiple target lesions are concerning for malignancy/ metastatic lesions.

✳️ Most commonly - lymphoma, haemangiosarcoma, insulinoma, histiocytic sarcoma.

❗️Note that ultrasound is not diagnostic. - you need cells to diagnose!

03/02/2026

Which blood 🩸 vessels?

1️⃣ Caudal vena cava

2️⃣ Aorta

3️⃣ Coeliac artery

4️⃣ Cranial mesenteric artery

What’s your hack to finding these elusive organs?! Let me know in the comments 🔍🕵️‍♀️

03/02/2026

Do you see the tubular structure in the lumen do the intestine? 😳.

These are almost certainly intestinal worms (roundworm and hookworm being the most common seen in QLD) How can we be sure ultrasonographically❓

✅ They’re tubular (like a small pipe)

✅ They have two parallel hyperechoic edges. Sometimes with anechoic region in the middle and other times hypoechoic space in between.

✅ You may be able to see independent movement (writhing and serpiginous movement) if they’re alive.

✅ Often associated with the parasites is deranged intestinal motility.

Can you see them? 🪱 Look closely - they can be hard to image. 👀

02/02/2026

New posts coming soon. In the meantime please enjoy Candice playing with my Kentia palm. She loves to eat it! 😞

19/10/2025

Have you ever scanned a cat’s bladder and noticed these hyperechoic floating flecks in the lumen ❓They move around, suspended in the urine but never settle to the dependent side.

🐱 has no urinary signs and you don’t know what is going on!

Don’t panic!! 🙀

This is likely lipiduria and an incidental finding in the cat with no urinary signs and normal urinalysis.

How can we be sure? Here’s a checklist:

✅ Doesn’t settle. Always floating. (Cells and stones will settle)

✅ Doesn’t twinkle with colour Doppler (stones and mineralised sediment will twinkle)

✅ Doesn’t cause shadowing (stones and mineralised sediment will show distal acoustic shadowing)

✅ There is no reverberation artifact (gas will reverberate).

Successful scanning tip:

✅ Take advantage of your ultrasound artifacts to help with your diagnosis

✅ Always relate any abnormality to the clinical signs.

✅ Don’t panic and follow for more tips!

14/10/2025

😳. Elderly patient with intermittent episodes of suspected pain in the abdomen.

There’s an adrenal mass noted on the caudal pole. But look what happens when we follow it to see where it goes ‼️‼️

This mass extends into the aorta and we know it isn’t just a simple blood clot - it has blood supply when we apply colour.

Adrenal masses can be benign or malignant, functional or non-functional.

Their position close to major vessels (aorta and caudal vena cava) always raises concern for invasion so it is important check for this by gently fanning and rocking your probe to make sure you’ve seen the whole mass.

✅ Successful scanning tip: place colour Doppler to distinguish a thrombus from a mass.

14/10/2025

Guilty as charged!🤣

I will gladly induce, intubate and recover your patients 😊 I’m even happy to scrub in and hold things for you, but surgery team - please don’t ask me to cut. 🔪 ✂️

Welcome all my new followers 🐱I’m a mobile ultrasound vet in Queensland, Australia 🇦🇺 I love all things ultrasound and w...
02/10/2025

Welcome all my new followers 🐱

I’m a mobile ultrasound vet in Queensland, Australia 🇦🇺

I love all things ultrasound and will happily put a probe on anything and everything! 🛜

I run in-clinic training for vets to develop their confidence and skills in animal ultrasound (without the overwhelm). 💜

My space will be full of quick tips on successful scanning, interesting cases, maybe some behind-the-scenes stuff, the odd funny vet meme and of course plenty of pics of my own pets: I’m a crazy cat lady 🐈‍⬛ 🐈 at heart. ❤️

Stick around to learn some neat tricks to help make you a better sonographer and diagnostician. 👩‍⚕️ 🩺 🐕 🐹 🐀 🐴

✳️. Successful scanning tip: ✅Use other modalities to diagnose and manage your cases✅✅✳️ I know I sound like a broken re...
21/05/2025

✳️. Successful scanning tip: ✅

Use other modalities to diagnose and manage your cases✅✅

✳️ I know I sound like a broken record here but radiographs are not the enemy!! 💀

✳️ This patient had a palpable abdominal mass and radiographs confirm this large mass in the caudo-dorsal abdomen causing ventral deviation of the colon.

✳️ You can also see there is something very odd in the cranial portion of these radiographs
- look at the chest area. What is that??! 😳😳😳

✳️ Lateral thoracic radiograph shows a diffuse nodular pattern.

✳️ With all of this information obtained via radiographs 🩻 we were able to provide additional information for the owner.

➡️ After a long discussion with the owner, specifically, costs and quality of life discussions, ultrasound was declined and the patient moved to palliative management.

✳️✳️Lesson: Successfuly scanning technique?
Answer: No matter how badly we want to ultrasound as many patients as we can, sometimes, the best thing for the patient and the owner is knowing when we don’t need to.

What do you think ❓❓

Successful scanning tip: ✅ CUT YOUR ORGANS! ✂️ And I’m not talking about performing surgery 😷 Anyone who knows me will ...
05/04/2025

Successful scanning tip:

✅ CUT YOUR ORGANS! ✂️

And I’m not talking about performing surgery 😷 Anyone who knows me will know how much I dislike surgery🔪 😂

Would you believe these still images were taken from the same exact kidney?? 😳‼️

Just as radiographs only capture a 2D image ◽️of our 3D organs 🧊 , a still ultrasound image will only give you a snapshot 📸 of the organ of interest.

This is why in radiology 🩻 we take orthogonal views. It’s the same in sonography but in ultrasound scanning, we have the benefit of not only viewing our organ in both longitudinal or transverse plane, we can view or cut it in so many different ways! 🔍 .

Make sure you are fanning, rocking, sliding, and twisting your probe to “slice” the organ in as many different planes as possible or you could be missing substantial pathology.

Happy scanning 🛜

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Brisbane, QLD
4001

Telephone

+61416023786

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