Veterinary imaging: Small animal
A dog & cat companion to High Yield Imaging, written for veterinarians and veterinary students. Protocols, pattern-based differentials, calculators, a glossary and a practical safety checklist for small-animal practice.
Small-animal essentials
Small-animal essentials: every diagnostic study needs general anaesthesia; many veterinary magnets are low-field (0.2–1.5T), so STIR is favoured for fat suppression and scan-time/SNR trade-offs matter. Gadolinium is dosed by weight (typically 0.1 mmol/kg; verify the label).
Explore the toolkit
MRI Protocols ExplorerProtocols Representative sequence protocols by region (brain/head, spine, MSK and body) with per-sequence tick-boxes.Differential-Diagnosis GuideDifferentials Pattern-recognition differentials for canine & feline brain, spinal cord and musculoskeletal MRI, with discriminators.MR Calculators & ReferenceCalculators Weight-based gadolinium tables, TI-to-null, SNR/field-strength and voxel/scan-time ready-reckoners.MRI GlossaryGlossary Physics, sequences, positioning & anaesthesia, artifacts, contrast, safety and clinical terms, each with a canine/feline example.Anaesthesia, Safety & Patient-Prep ChecklistChecklist A working pre-scan checklist, GA & monitoring guidance, MR safety-zone rules, gadolinium cautions, and a 12-card student high-yield cram sheet.Veterinary RadiographyRestraint, radiation safety and views for dogs and catsVeterinary UltrasoundUltrasound for small animalsVeterinary Imaging Interview Questions & GuideQuestions and model answers
Common indications
MRI’s greatest value in domestic animals is soft-tissue detail, above all the nervous system, where it is the modality of choice. The conditions most often imaged, by system:
Brain Intracranial disease
- Neoplasia: meningioma (commonest primary tumour in dog & cat), glioma, choroid plexus tumour, pituitary macroadenoma, lymphoma
- MUO / meningoencephalitis of unknown origin (GME, NME, NLE)
- Infectious encephalitis: toxo, neospora, fungal, feline neuro-FIP
- Seizure / epilepsy work-up
- Cerebrovascular: ischaemic infarct (esp. cats), haemorrhage
- Metabolic / toxic: thiamine deficiency, hepatic encephalopathy, storage disease
Spine Spinal cord disease
- IVDD: Hansen type I extrusion & type II protrusion
- FCE & ANNPE: peracute non-painful myelopathy
- Cervical spondylomyelopathy (Wobbler)
- Chiari-like malformation & syringomyelia (CKCS)
- Discospondylitis, spinal / nerve-root tumours
- Lumbosacral (cauda equina) disease; DM (to exclude compression)
Head & neck Non-brain head & neck
- Nasal disease: rhinitis / fungal vs tumour, cribriform invasion
- Otitis media / interna, nasopharyngeal polyps (cats)
- Trigeminal & cranial-nerve lesions, masticatory muscle disease
- Orbital & retrobulbar masses
MSK & body Musculoskeletal & body
- Stifle: cranial cruciate rupture, meniscal tears
- Shoulder: biceps / supraspinatus, medial instability
- Soft-tissue sarcoma & bone-tumour (osteosarcoma) staging
- Peripheral nerve sheath tumours, nerve-root avulsion
- Portosystemic shunts (MRA), hepatic / adrenal masses
Educational use only, not a substitute for clinical judgement, local protocols, device labelling or specialist veterinary radiological interpretation.