Small Animals Fracture Repair

Radiographic Interpretation of the Abdomen

Figure 1: Stone in the stomach of a two-and-a-half-year-old female bulldog. The stone is denser than surrounding structures, thus radio opaque.

Figures 2, 3: A, Excessive barium obscuring a foreign body in the stomach. B, A two-hour radiograph showing a foreign body with some barium still adhered to it. This patient was a seven-yeen-year-old male dog that had been vomiting for two months.

Figure 4, 5:Rubber ball in the stomach outlined with barium. A, Before barium was given. B, Barium outlining the ball.

Figure 6: A, Carcinima of the cardia causing a dilated esophagus. Number 1 represents the tumor and number 3 represents the dilated esophagus. B, Barium examination showing the neoplasm manifest as a filling defect (2).

Figure 7: Gastric torsion. The folding lines in the mucosa are clearly visible in this radiograph. The pylorus is displaced dorsally.

Figure 8: Acute gastric dilatation. The enlarged stomach is readily visible. No folding lines of the mucosa are present and the pylorus is not to be displaced.

Figure 9: Acquired pyloric stenosis in an elderly dachshund. Radiographic changes such as this narrowed irregular pylorus must be visualized on every film in the series before significance is placed on them. At surgery, the mucosa was markedly thickened at the pylorus. Pyloroplasty resulted in complete regression of the vomiting  that had been present.

Figures 10, 11: Pylorospasm. A, An oblique radiogram of the pyloric antrum taken 40 minutes after the oral administration of barium. No stomach emptying has occurred, and no filling defects were visualized in the pylorus. The ruggal pattern is normal. The barium was vomited. B, Lateral abdominal film taken the day after administration of a food-barium mixture followed by administration of a spasmolytic drug. As can be seen, much of the stomach's contents have traversed the pylorus and are now in the small intestine. This patient was an extremely excitable, young German shephered. Pyloroplasty eliminated the vomiting which had been present prior to the operation.

Figure 12: Accumulation of large amount of gas and secondary dilatation of majority of the small bowel loops due to mechanical obstruction caused by an ileocolic intussusception. The radioopaque foreign body seen on the lateral view is an incidental finding.

Figure 13: Standing lateral projections of the abdominal cavity of two dogs with small bowel obstruction, demonstrating gas-capped fluid levels. Both dogs have ileocolic intussuception.

Figure 14: Foreign body outlined by barium contrast medium. Radiolucent ball obstructing the terminal duodenum is outlined by barium (arrows). This patient was a fifteen-month-old boxed that had been vomiting for three weeks.

Figure 15: Foreign body (not seen) in the pylorus attached to a string which extended to the cecum. There is an accordion-like folding of the small intestine along the string which is nicely shown by the barium.

Figure 16: Free gas (arrows) in the peritoneal cavity due to a ruptured ileum. This patient was a five-year-old male collie that had acute abdominal symptoms. A horizontal x-ray beam with the patient in the recumbent lateral position is routinely employed to demonstrate spontaneous pneumoperitoneum.

Figures 17, 18: A. Paralytic ileus. Most small and large bowel loops contain gas. B.Peritonitis due to a perforation of the ileum.

Figure 19: Ileocolic intussusception demonstrated by a barium enema study. Barium will normal fill the colon and cecum; however a filling defect seen within the ileocolic designates the intussuscepted portion of the ileum.

Figure 20: Acute cirrhosis of the liver causing hepatomegaly. The liver edges are rounded owing to enlargement. There is slight caudal displacement of the pylorus of the stomach. This patient was a three-year-old male German shepherd.