Veterinary ultrasound: how it became a core tool in practice
Bottom line
Veterinary ultrasound has moved from a niche imaging tool to a routine part of everyday practice, and the shift says as much about training and workflow as it does about hardware. In a recent overview for Veterinary Practice News, Lisa Ziemer, VMD, DACVR, traced how veterinary ultrasound evolved over roughly four decades from an experimental modality to an essential one in general practice, specialty care, and emergency settings. The article highlights the rise of smaller, more portable systems, higher-frequency probes for superficial structures, digital image storage, and remote consultation, alongside the growing use of point-of-care ultrasound, or POCUS, including AFAST and TFAST, to support rapid bedside decision-making. Dominique Penninck, DVM, PhD, DACVR, DECVDI, a longtime Tufts imaging leader recently recognized as Professor Emerita, stands out as one of the field’s early adopters and educators. (veterinarypracticenews.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the bigger story is that ultrasound’s value depends heavily on who’s holding the probe and how the findings are integrated with the rest of the case. The American College of Veterinary Radiology says ultrasound is the imaging modality of choice for many conditions, but also stresses that accurate identification and interpretation of abnormalities are highly dependent on training and skill. ACVR notes that radiology residents complete extensive ultrasound training, including a minimum of six months of intensive clinical work and at least 1,000 examinations, while a 2022 ACVR/ECVDI consensus effort sought to standardize full abdominal ultrasound exams in dogs and cats. At the same time, POCUS has expanded access by giving general practitioners and emergency teams a faster, more focused way to answer specific clinical questions, especially in unstable patients. (acvr.org)
What to watch: Expect the next phase of ultrasound adoption to center on standardization, training pathways, and how practices balance bedside POCUS with comprehensive exams and specialist review. (acvr.org)
Veterinary ultrasound’s evolution is no longer just a story about better machines. It’s a story about how imaging moved closer to the patient — into more exam rooms, treatment areas, and emergency bays — while raising new questions about training, standards, and scope. A recent Veterinary Practice News article argues that the field’s progress has come from pairing technical advances with clinical judgment and thoughtful integration, not from equipment alone. (veterinarypracticenews.com)
What is veterinary ultrasound?
Ultrasound is a real-time imaging method that uses high-frequency sound waves rather than ionizing radiation. A handheld transducer sends sound pulses into the body and reconstructs the returning echoes into a live image of soft tissue, fluid, and organ architecture. Because it shows motion and tissue texture as they happen — and carries none of the radiation exposure of radiography or CT — it is well suited to evaluating abdominal organs, the heart, pregnancy, and superficial structures. Its main limitations are that sound waves do not travel through bone or gas, so it cannot image the interior of bone or aerated lung, and image quality depends heavily on the person holding the probe.
In practice, veterinary ultrasound now spans two broad modes. A comprehensive diagnostic exam — typically a full abdominal study or an echocardiogram — is a systematic survey performed and interpreted with specialist-level training. Point-of-care ultrasound, or POCUS, is a focused, question-driven scan done at the bedside to answer one specific clinical question quickly, such as whether free fluid is present.
Where veterinary ultrasound is used in practice
The modality reaches across nearly every body system. A 2006 review in The Veterinary Journal noted that ultrasound was first used in animals for back-fat measurement tied to carcass quality, then expanded into routine small animal and equine diagnostic workups across cardiac, thoracic, abdominal, reproductive, ocular, and musculoskeletal applications. A later review described sonography as an essential imaging modality in small animal medicine, with a history nearly as long as diagnostic medical sonography in human care. (sciencedirect.com)
In day-to-day practice, the most common applications include:
- Abdominal ultrasound — the workhorse exam for the liver, spleen, kidneys, bladder, gastrointestinal tract, and adrenal glands, and for guiding fine-needle aspirates and biopsies.
- Echocardiography (cardiac ultrasound) — assessing heart chambers, valves, and function, often the decisive test in cardiac cases.
- Emergency POCUS — AFAST and TFAST — abdominal and thoracic focused-assessment scans that let clinicians evaluate unstable patients at the bedside without transport and quickly flag free abdominal fluid, pericardial effusion, pneumothorax, or urinary obstruction. Work is ongoing to refine where those scans look best — for example, a comparison study on probe sites for canine pneumothorax.
- Reproductive ultrasound — pregnancy diagnosis, fetal monitoring, and evaluation of the reproductive tract.
- Musculoskeletal and ocular imaging — tendons, ligaments, and the eye, where high-frequency probes resolve fine superficial detail.
That breadth is mirrored in how the field organizes itself: the International Veterinary Point-of-Care Ultrasound Society now explicitly positions VPOCUS and FAST ultrasound as tools to answer urgent clinical questions within minutes and help teams choose the next best diagnostic step. (veterinarypracticenews.com)
Why adoption is accelerating
The current phase of that evolution is defined by portability and focus. Veterinary Practice News points to high-frequency linear probes, easier digital storage, and the ability to share images for remote consultation as practical advances that have improved access and confidence. The article also emphasizes the growth of POCUS, especially AFAST and TFAST, which allow clinicians to evaluate unstable patients at the bedside without transport and to quickly identify problems such as free abdominal fluid, pericardial effusion, or urinary obstruction. (veterinarypracticenews.com)
The profession has also been shaped by educators and specialists who helped build ultrasound into mainstream veterinary imaging. Tufts’ Dominique Penninck, recently recognized in Tufts’ 2026 commencement materials as Professor Emerita, has focused her research on small animal abdominal ultrasonography and ultrasound-assisted interventional procedures. Her career has included clinical practice, ultrasound consulting, residency training, textbook chapters, and editorship of the Atlas of Small Animal Ultrasonography, illustrating how much the field’s growth has depended on mentorship and knowledge transfer, not just equipment upgrades. (vet.tufts.edu)
Training and standards still define quality
Even with wider adoption, expert bodies are drawing a clear line between access and expertise. ACVR says ultrasound is the imaging modality of choice for many conditions, but stresses that interpretation is highly dependent on the operator’s training and skill. Its position statement says veterinarians performing and interpreting ultrasound should understand indications, limitations, anatomy, alternative diagnostics, image acquisition, documentation, and reporting. ACVR also notes that approved radiology residencies require substantial ultrasound-specific training, including at least 1,000 examinations, while technicians performing studies should work under strong supervision and mentorship. Separately, a 2022 ACVR/ECVDI consensus statement on abdominal ultrasound, summarized by Iowa State’s Kristina Miles, aimed to reduce variation in exam quality and documentation and described a full comprehensive ultrasound exam as the basic standard of care, while specifically excluding POCUS from that document’s scope. (acvr.org)
Industry and academic commentary points in the same direction: ultrasound is expanding, but safe growth depends on structure. The Veterinary Practice News overview says POCUS can be especially useful for clinicians with less extensive training because it is limited and question-driven, and can help determine whether referral is needed. Earlier reporting from the same outlet quoted ACVR president Tony Pease on ultrasound’s ability to provide real-time information that other modalities may miss, and described rising demand that may be outpacing boarded radiologist capacity in some settings. In parallel, recent literature in Frontiers in Veterinary Science described ultrasound as an increasingly robust and beneficial diagnostic tool across veterinary practice. Taken together, that suggests a field that is broadening quickly, while relying more heavily on teleconsultation, selective referral, and tiered use models. (veterinarypracticenews.com)
Veterinary ultrasound vs. radiography
Ultrasound and radiography (X-ray) are complementary, not interchangeable. Radiography gives a fast, whole-region overview and is the stronger choice for bone, the lungs, and a general survey of the chest or abdomen, but it is a static image and uses ionizing radiation. Ultrasound resolves soft-tissue detail and fluid in real time without radiation, and lets the clinician watch organ motion and blood flow — but sound waves cannot pass through bone or air-filled lung, so it is poorly suited to those structures. In many workups the two are used together: a radiograph to frame the problem, then ultrasound to characterize a soft-tissue or fluid finding more precisely. POCUS adds a third tier — a quick, focused look that helps decide whether a comprehensive study or specialist referral is the next step.
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, ultrasound’s evolution is changing both clinical expectations and practice operations. More teams can now perform focused bedside scans, communicate findings to pet parents in real time, and decide faster whether a patient needs surgery, referral, monitoring, or another imaging modality. But the expansion of access also increases the importance of defining what counts as a focused screening exam versus a comprehensive diagnostic study, how images are archived and reviewed, and when specialist input is needed. In other words, ultrasound is becoming more available, but not simpler. The practical challenge for clinics is building protocols, training, and quality controls that match the level of scan being offered. (veterinarypracticenews.com)
What to watch: The next chapter will likely focus less on whether practices have ultrasound and more on how they use it: broader POCUS education, clearer standards for comprehensive exams, more cloud-based image sharing, and continued collaboration between general practitioners, emergency clinicians, and boarded imagers. If those pieces keep maturing together, ultrasound’s role in veterinary medicine will keep expanding without losing diagnostic rigor. (acvr.org)