Abstract
Echocardiography is performed routinely in dogs and cats for the investigation of cardiac disease following well-established, published guidelines for the echocardiographic examination. However, such guidelines do not exist for other animal patients such as small pet mammals, zoo animals, wildlife, birds and reptiles. In these species, a detailed knowledge of the widely differing cardiovascular function and cardiac anatomy is necessary in order to interpret the echocardiographic examination. This varies widely, from the four-chambered mammalian heart, the muscular tricuspid valve and right aorta in birds, the three-chambered heart in reptiles and amphibians with intracardiac shunting of blood, to the two-chambered heart in fish. These are adaptations to very different natural histories and ecological niche requirements such as flying, diving and hibernation, and influence echocardiographic interpretation. Modifications to the echocardiographic technique are necessary in order to obtain a feasible acoustic window in view of differences in visceral and skeletal anatomy, such as the shell in tortoises, air sacs in birds and encircling ribs in snakes. The presence of scales, feathers and fur also contribute to difficulties in obtaining diagnostic quality images.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.