Blog

At Perth Cat Hospital, we greatly value and focus on constantly expanding and improving our equipment as part of our facilities, to continually provide excellent and best practice service to our feline patients.

We are extremely happy to inform you that we have acquired a Gem 3500 Blood Gas analyser and an iM3 Vet-Tome atraumatic dental system! Please see the articles below describing the huge impact these two machines make in our daily ability to help our feline patients.

Other examples of upgrades this year include the installation of a fully piped oxygen delivery system to our surgical suites, dental suite, treatment room and intensive care unit. This allows for rapid connection of oxygen from a wall mounted connector to an anaesthetic machine or oxygen cage, without the need for moving cumbersome oxygen cylinders.

Recent purchases in the past twelve months also include the high quality, fine Olympus flexible video endoscope which allows us to image the mouth, throat, oesophagus and stomach. The endoscope allows us to evaluate for the presence of polyps and tumours, assess the lining of the oesophagus and stomach and retrieve any ingested foreign bodies such as pieces of string. The endoscope also has a biopsy channel which allows us to be able to take small biopsies and other pathology samples.

Another specialised equipment in use is our Siemens X300 ultrasound unit, which allows us to perform most simple abdominal ultrasound examinations including pregnancy diagnosis. It is also very useful for detecting fluid in the pleural or abdominal space, and used for internal fine needle aspiration procedures. Both Dr Martine and Dr Sabine have undergone post-graduate education in ultrasound, and have been performing these procedures for many years.

Our dental suite has been especially well equipped:  We have an Elite IM3 dental suite with an ultrasonic scaler, fibre-optic high speed drill, polisher and suction. We have purchased the complete range of specific feline dentistry hand pieces to ensure the gentlest approach to your cat’s mouth. We use a wall mounted IM3 digital dental x-ray unit and processor to instantly create good quality dental radiographs. This machine also can be used to take high resolution images of the nasal and facial bones when investigating nasal disease. We have a high quality surgical magnification loupe with a strong light source helping us visualise the tiny structures during feline dental procedures. The iM3 Vet-Tome is now another extremely useful machine to complement the dental suite.

Our laboratory is extensively equipped with an IDEXX Catalyst and Procyte analyser which allows us to rapidly perform comprehensive blood tests. The IDEXX Coag Dx analyser gives rapid results for blood clotting tests, especially useful in emergency situations. We can rapidly perform urine testing, and blood tests for Thyroid hormone, FIV and FeLV tests, and ProBNP heart biomarker tests.

We also have delicate eye testing equipment, assisting us with rapid diagnosis of urgent eye conditions. The Tono-Pen is a hand held machine that measures the internal pressure of the eye. Rapid diagnosis of uveitis or glaucoma is absolutely imperative to help save vision. Our Panoptic ophthalmoscope greatly helps us visualise the retina better. A 3.5 x Magnifying loupe allows us to examine eyelid margins, the cornea and the anterior chamber of the eye better.

Dopper Blood pressure monitoring is still the gold standard for identifying hypertension, so common in our feline patients. Our machine is light weight, and has head phones to help minimise any stress associated with the procedure. A recent publication from the American Association of Feline Practitioners advocates testing all cat’s blood pressure twice yearly once they reach 7 years of age.

A word about our Anaesthetic equipment: We are very lucky to have two mobile anaesthetic machines and two high standard Surgi-Vet anaesthetic monitors. This allows for constant monitoring of Carbon dioxide (Capnography), oxygen, heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure. In addition to a dedicated nurse monitoring the anaesthetised patient, this monitoring equipment is vital to minimising the risks associated with anaesthetics.

Gem 3500 Blood Gas Analyser

Perth Cat Hospital has recently invested in a blood gas analysis machine which will be used on a daily basis in some of our routine blood panels. Blood gas machines are not commonly found in general practice and are usually only available at specialist and emergency practices. We are very excited to be able to offer this extremely useful testing to our clients in-house. It is very quick to run and provides results within minutes.

Blood gases provide critical information in our sick patients. The acid/base picture provided by blood gases assists our veterinarians to quickly and accurately diagnose many diseases. They allow us to effectively determine what type of intravenous fluid to choose for supportive care. They also allow us to assess patient prognosis, and in particular help us identify those patients that require admission for further care with us in hospital (or at an emergency centre such as Perth Vet Emergency if out of hours). Given that cats are masters at hiding disease, this is extremely useful.

Blood gas machines provide ionised calcium levels (iCa). In the past this gold standard test in Calcium levels was only available by sending the blood urgently by taxi to the Veterinary laboratory, or an emergency or specialist centre for analysis. Now it can be performed here within our own laboratory at much lower cost and results are available within minutes.

Blood gases also provide important information when assessing renal disease in our patients. Many feline patients can develop metabolic acidosis from renal disease. Often this can go unnoticed for long periods of time as symptoms do not appear until the acidosis is in advanced stages. By this time the patient may already be very unwell. Blood gases allow us to detect metabolic acidosis in the early stages so we can treat it before it advances and causes significant harm to the patient.

Blood gases will be included in our Renal plus and Comprehensive blood profiles. Over the next few months we will be trialling the demand for blood gases with the view to eventually phase out our old renal profile and bring in the new Comprehensive and Renal plus profiles.

iM3 Vet-Tome

The iM3 Vet Tome is an exciting new system that assists with dental extractions. The automated periotome system helps the dental surgeon to extract teeth with much reduced trauma to the surrounding structures and significantly reduced loss of surrounding alveolar bone:

Extracting a cat’s tooth is no simple matter as their roots are often three times the depth or size of the crown, as opposed to our own teeth where the crown and root are of similar size. This means the extraction procedure can be far more time consuming and complicated than in humans, especially when removing a multi-rooted tooth.

Traditional Surgical extraction technique:

Traditionally many tooth extractions require a surgical flap of gum tissue to be elevated to be able to access the root properly without damage to the surrounding bone and gums. After the gingival flap has been raised, part of the surrounding alveolar bone is burred away and the tooth and root is then carefully extracted using a periodontal elevator. The remaining edges of the bone are smoothed with a dental burr, the socket flushed and gingival flap sutured back in place.

iM3 Vet-Tome extraction technique:

With the electric iM3 Vet-Tome an ultra-thin stainless steel blade/tip is introduced into the periodontal space. The blade moves with a mechanical in and out action, and the operator moves the blade in a gentle side to side movement gently cutting the periodontal ligament. As the blade is flexible it can follow the curve of the tooth root. Once most of the ligament around the root has been separated, the tooth can then be gently extracted using periodontal elevators and extracting forceps.  The bone socket is then curetted and flushed, and gingival edges sutured. Therefore the surrounding bone can be preserved, and in some cases there may be no need for a large gingival flap. This results in reduced surrounding tissue trauma and a shorter extraction procedure.

In cases where there is Feline tooth resorptive disease, the traditional surgical extraction technique may still be required, as the periodontal ligament and space gradually disappears. If there is a partial periodontal ligament, the tooth is extracted surgically with a gingival flap made and part of the alveolar bone removed to access the root. If the root no longer has any periodontal ligament, the crown can be amputated, leaving the resorbing root in place.

We are excited to be able to use the iM3 Vet-Tome as part of extraction procedures in our dentals, as it will help to reduce trauma to our precious feline patients mouths, and result in a shorter anaesthetic time.  

Follow us:.