Western Suburbs prides itself on having quality equipment to use in diagnosis and treatment of your pets’ problems. Not only is it better for the pet through faster and more accurate diagnosis, but good equipment is safer and easier for our staff to use.

Our old x-ray developer was beginning to cough and sputter, so it was a great opportunity to upgrade to the newest technology. Our AGFA digital radiography system is now up and running!

Digital radiography uses the same x-ray radiation-generating exposure system, so we still have to wear lead gowns and minimize staff and patient exposure. However, the exposed ‘film’ is scanned into a specialized computer that makes the image digital, allowing us to tweak the contrast and brightness of the image just like you can with your digital photographs at home. So for example, now we can take a film that is just a tad too dark and adjust it to the proper exposure settings, meaning your pet and our staff aren’t exposed to another radiation event. It can mean less time under anesthesia for your pet, too.

Furthermore, we can zoom in massively to check areas of interest. This really wasn’t possible with traditional dark-room exposed films. Digital images are a great format when discussing your pet’s case with specialists, too. As we can email the files (called teleradiology), feedback from specialists now only takes hours rather than days.

So while everyone loves to have new toys, digital radiology is more than that. It certainly has great benefits for the care of your pet and the health of our staff.