Scintigraphy

Examples of what we offer

Skeletal scintigraphy

Skeletal scintigraphy is used for both horses and small animals when lameness is difficult to locate. This examination detects abnormal activity in the skeleton and indicates where it is located.

However, it cannot determine the type of injury the animal has. Therefore, it is often supplemented with other imaging diagnostic methods, such as radiography, ultrasound, or computed tomography.

Renal, thyroid, and portal scintigraphy 

At SLU University Animal Hospital, we perform renal, thyroid, and portal scintigraphy on small animals.

Renal scintigraphy, also known as a GFR (glomerular filtration rate) examination can be part of kidney disease investigation as it provides information on how well the kidneys are functioning. This test measures both total kidney function and the function of each kidney. This simple examination is performed on a conscious patient. After an intravenous injection, the patient lies on a table while images are continuously taken over the course of six minutes.

Thyroid scintigraphy is often used to diagnose hyperthyroidism in cats and to aid in diagnosing and staging thyroid cancer in dogs and cats.

Portal scintigraphy, or PSS scintigraphy, is a simple and quick way to determine whether a patient has a vascular malformation that shunts blood past the liver: a porto-systemic shunt (PSS). The examination is performed on an anesthetized dog through an ultrasound-guided injection directly into the spleen, followed by continuous recording for three minutes.

How a scintigraphy examination done

For small animals

During a scintigraphic examination, a radioactive substance is injected. This does not harm the patient. For skeletal scintigraphy, the time between injection and examination is approximately two hours. During this period, you as the pet owner may spend this time with your pet as you wish. 

A sedative injection is administered ahead of the imaging procedure. The examination takes about one hour, but the time span may vary. At times, a supplementary diagnostic imaging examination is performed after the scintigraphic examination. Once the examination is complete, your pet is given a wake-up injection. Your pet will be under constant supervision by staff at the animal hospital during the examination.

Most of the injected radioactivity is excreted through urine. Almost all of the radioactivity leaves the body within 24 hours after the examination. If the dog urinates indoors during this time, use gloves and wipe up the urine with paper and flush it down the toilet. Throw away the gloves and thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water.

More information about the examination and radiation safety can be found in your visit notice to the animal hospital. 

For horses

The radioactive substance is injected into a vein in the horse's neck. Before the injection, anaesthetic ointment is put on the area where the needle will be inserted, resulting in the horse not feeling the needle prick. The injection itself does not cause any discomfort to the horse. Afterwards, the horse is allowed to rest for two hours before the examination begins. In the meantime, the horse is allowed to eat and drink as usual.

During the examination, the horse is given sedatives. The examination can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. During the examination, the horse is given sedatives repeatedly but in low doses to avoid the horse becoming unsteady and wobbly. Each diagnostic image takes approximately 1.5 minutes.

If we find areas showing an increased uptake of the radioactive substance, the examination is supplemented with other diagnostic imaging examinations the morning after the scintigraphy.

In the afternoon the day after the scintigraphy, the horse is ready to go home. At that time the answer is not yet ready, and it takes another 3-4 working days. The answer is then sent to the referring veterinarian.

Horses that come to us for scintigraphy is placed in special boxes. This is done to reduce the risk of staff being exposed to more radiation than necessary and to reduce the number of people who may come into contact with the radiation. For radiation protection reasons, the boxes are not cleaned the day after the scintigraphy examination because most of the radioactivity is excreted in the urine and makes the bedding shavings in the boxes radioactive.

More information about the examination and radiation safety can be found in your visit notice to the animal hospital. 

Book an appointment

In order to book an appointment for a scintigraphy examination, we need a referral from your veterinarian that tells us how long your animal has had problems, what was found during the clinical examination, what type of examination is needed, and what the examining veterinarian has questions about. A radiologist reviews the referral before we contact you to book an appointment. We have direct contact with your veterinarian to discuss the case, so referrals must be sent to us via your veterinarian.

We have scintigraphy appointments approximately every other week. During the summer, they are less frequent. We always send an appointment letter with the first available time for an appointment. 

You can also contact our diagnostic imaging unit and book an appointment by phone or email. Payment is made at our Small Animal Clinic's reception or our Horse Clinic's reception before you leave the animal hospital.