Prized CT scanner able to generate 3-D images of pets

June 14, 2018 · 0 Comments

Written By SCOTT TAYLOR

A local veterinary clinic has jumped into a new world of possibilities with the purchase of a CT scanner that allows doctors there to see full 3-D images of pets before they begin surgery.

Caledon Mountain Veterinary Hospital, located in Caledon Village, provides medical and preventive care as well as general and orthopedic surgery for both cats and dogs.

According to Registered Veterinary Technician Alie Volpatti, the scanner helps to provide accurate pre-operative planning using 3-D imaging and printing of bone models. This is designed to help patients recover and improve with long-term pain-free function.

“It takes a series of X-rays and it builds us every sort of angle we could need of the certain area that we’re scanning,” she said. “Then we can make 3-D models out of it and, especially with things like orthopedic surgery, we can do things like 3-D printing and make models and bone cuts. We can actually do a surgery on those bones before we have to go through and do it on an animal, so basically allowing us to preplan and map out our surgery just a bit better.”

The clinic often takes on complicated cases, to the impetus to purchase the CT scanner came from the desire to offer the best possible outcomes for furry members of the family.

“We do a lot of specialty surgery, a lot of orthopedic, so that was the reason behind (getting it), so we could have a more detailed planning for the orthopedic surgery, especially for the more complicated procedures,“ Volpatti said.

Dr. John Brajkovich opened Caledon Mountain Veterinary Hospital in 2002 with three employees and has since seen it grow to over 16 employees. They say it’s the only scanner of its types in a 50-km radius.

“Just in terms of general diagnostics it gives us another diagnostic in our arsenal.”