Pennard Vets is the world’s largest employee-owned vet group, going above and beyond to provide the highest possible levels of care, while making a positive difference to communities.
They invest in their team, facilities, equipment and training, embracing the future and leading the way with the adoption of new technologies.
In 2022, Pennard Vets became the first veterinary practice in Europe to be classified as a B Corp – meaning they “voluntarily meet higher standards of transparency, accountability, and performance”.
VET.CT met with radiologist, Deborah Mount, who recently joined Pennard Vets to run their newly installed CT unit, to discuss how the practice’s high standards extend to best practice in diagnostic imaging and radiation safety for their team and patients.
Deborah talked through all the elements that result in a successful day in the imaging suite; from patient selection and setup of the X-ray room, to imaging workflows and the importance of teamwork.
Patient selection
“Our team of vets decide which patients require imaging and the type of restraint needed. Patients are only X-rayed conscious if they're really sick and need a quick image of the chest, for example. Everything else is planned to have sedation or a general anaesthetic. Even if conscious, patients are typically restrained with positioning aids such as sandbags and foam wedges. In the five months since I joined Pennard Vets, I haven’t seen a single animal manually restrained for images."
"One of the most important steps happens before the patient is even admitted, which is the completion of an imaging request form by the vet responsible for the case."
“It’s important to have the background clinical history and what the vet is expecting imaging to rule in or rule out. That way, we can ensure we get all the correct images and avoid unnecessary exposures. A typical example would be a lameness in the limb, which may have been localised on examination to the stifle - we can then focus on that joint rather than taking survey X-rays of the whole limb.”
Diagnostic Imaging Workflows