Veterinary Medicine - November 2008 - (Page 599)

Practical Matters clinical advice and reminders from your colleagues PEER-RE VIE WED Use comparison radiographs when identifying orthopedic lesions in young dogs raumatic injuries in young dogs can produce subtle radiographic changes that are Joseph Harari, MS, confusing and difﬁcult to identify because DVM, DACVS Veterinary Surgical of open physes and whole body (vs. collimated Specialists or focused) radiographic examinations. Radio21 E. Mission Ave. graphic characteristics such as a displaced bone Spokane, WA 99202 fragment, a narrowed or widened physis, and periosseous soft tissue thickening can be hard to recognize. A useful protocol for practitioners who review their own ﬁlms or send them to a specialist is to routinely obtain orthogonal views of the affected and normal bones. In many patients, side-by-side imaging using Vaginal cytology for ovulation timing: Not necessarily an accurate indicator PEER-RE VIE WED T V the same view of each bone will further help veterinarians identify a lesion (Figures 1 & 2). Because veterinary patients tend to be quite mobile, sedation is often necessary for accurate imaging. In addition, common injuries, such as avulsion of the tibial tuberosity apophysis, a proximal femoral capital physeal fracture, and a distal humeral or femoral condyle fracture, can be more easily appreciated by clients when a radiograph of the injury is compared with a radiograph of the normal bone. Furthermore, with an injury of several weeks’ duration in immature dogs, radiographic examination of the contralateral limb is critical in evaluating any disturbance of longitudinal bone growth. aginal epithelial cells are induced to divide by high serum estradiol concentrations present during proestrus in bitches. The rapid increase in the thickness of the vaginal epithelium leads to the death of the cells at the vaginal lumen; these appear as corniﬁed or keratinized cells in vaginal cytology samples. The percentage of corniﬁed vaginal epithelial cells progresses from 0% to 100% during proestrus, remains at 100% during estrus or standing heat, and abruptly falls to 0% with the onset of diestrus. Veterinarians cannot identify an ovulation date or a bitch’s fertility from vaginal cytology. All that can be identiﬁed Figure 1 Figure 2 1 & 2. Lateral radiographs of the right (1) and left (2) stiﬂe joints in a 4-month-old keeshond. The radiograph of the right stiﬂe reveals no abnormalities; the radiograph of the left stiﬂe reveals an avulsion fracture of the tibial tuberosity. (Case courtesy of Dr. Kevin French.) is whether the bitch has been exposed to estradiol and at which stage of the cycle she is in at the time of sample collection. The average bitch ovulates two days after the onset of cytologic estrus, deﬁned as complete corniﬁcation with more than 50% of the cells appearing anuclear. However, many normal bitches are not average, which makes vaginal cytology results too inaccurate to consistently determine the ovulation date. The ovulation date can be most accurateMargaret V. Root ly identiﬁed Kustritz, DVM, prospectively PhD, DACT Department of by measurVeterinary Clinical ing luteinizing Sciences hormone or College of Veterinary Medicine progesterone University of Minnesota concentrations St. Paul, MN 55108 in blood. VETERINARY MEDICINE November 2008 599

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Veterinary Medicine - November 2008

Veterinary Medicine - November 2008 Contents Leading Off Editors' Guest Just Ask the Expert Letters Practice Makes Perfect Clinical Exposures Practice Matters Idea Exchange Author Guidelines A Challenging Case: Esophageal Leiomyoma in a Dog Osteoarthritis in Cats: What We Now Know About Recognition and Treatment Product Preview CE Form/Advertiser Index Marketplace/Classifieds Mind Over Miller

Veterinary Medicine - November 2008

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