Ultrasound—whether you’re scanning the thorax or the abdomen—is really about answering a series of simple, clinically useful yes/no questions. As your skills improve, the number of questions you can confidently answer grows. We’ll cover abdominal ultrasound in more detail in future guidelines. But for now… let’s focus on thoracic ultrasound. Is this dyspnoea primarily a respiratory problem or primarily a heart problem? Is there fluid? Do I need to tap something? Do I need d

These patients—typically bulldogs or pugs—often arrive after exercise on a warm day or even during the relative cool of the night after a hot day. In these night-time presentations, hyperthermia is a consequence of upper airway obstruction, panic, and increased respiratory effort rather than environmental heat alone. I've had many patients, especially Frenchies, arrive with frequent coughing up of thick white foamy saliva. However, their primary problem is upper airway BO

* What it is: A plasma-based nucleosome assay used for cancer screening and monitoring in healthy, asymptomatic dogs only. * What it isn't: A cancer-specific diagnostic test or a substitute for pathology. * The Goal: It acts as a non-specific biomarker of pathological cell turnover. * The Origin: Developed with the highly regarded Texas A&M Gastrointestinal Laboratory, the same team that did so much to establish B12, TLI and PLI testing within general practice. 🔬 The Biology

Client communication tips: A lot of the win here is how you frame it: What owners think: “Neuro signs” → “stroke” → “brain tumour” → “put to sleep today”. What you can say early (when appropriate): “This can look terrifying, but it's usually a balance problem rather than a stroke, and a lot of these cases improve quickly.” “Let’s check for the red flags that would make us worry about brain involvement.” “If it’s the common ‘old dog vestibular’ pattern, we treat the nausea and