Now we're ready to get scanning.
We have our console,
we have our viewing device
and we have our probe.
Our cows are set up, it's a nice,
safe environment,
everything is nice and calm and we're ready to go.
So we'll put a glove on.
I will be scanning right handed today. We'll just have a quick recap on how
to hold the probe
and the movements that we can make once were in the cow.
So firstly we need to remember this is our leading edge,
which corresponds to the left hand side of our screen.
We need to palm the probe, so if we have one finger
on the
leading edge of the probe,
then we know where
we are at all times.
We then have several fingers on either side,
that can help us orientate where we are within the cow.
So whether we're
on top of the uterus or on top of the ovaries,
it gives us an idea of where we're actually located.
You can use your thumb
as a back stop to
the back of the probe,
this will help us as we're moving inside the cow
to ensure that the probe doesn't travel back down our arm.
So again palm the probe,
finger on the
leading edge, have your other three fingers
on either side
and use your thumb as a back stop.
The movements that we can make are, move
forward or back,
pressure,
rotating
side to side and
rocking or tilting.
Now we're ready to go inside the cow.
We will need to use gentle handling techniques,
just as you would with manual palpation. So we'll get
some ultrasound lube.
And I put that both in my palm
and also on the back of my hand.
We'll cover the
surface of the probe
and we'll use what's on the back of our hand
to lubricate the cow.
Gently grasp the tail,
use the back of your hand and
closing your fingers around the end of the probe.
We're now inside the cow.
We want to perform our examination in a methodical way.
So we can start back at the cervix,
travel up to the uterine body,
then go up one uterine horn to the ovary and back
to the uterine body.
Then we can go up the other horn,
up to the ovary on the other side
and back down to the uterine body.
If we then want to evaluate any structures further,
so we wanted to have another look at the ovary or another look at the pregnancy,
say if we're going to perform some
foetal sexing of that foetus, then
we can go back and evaluate that.
But we want to ensure that we've seen all of the structures that we can when we are inside the cow.
So what we'll now do
is locate the cervix,
which is a firm,
tubular structure,
leading down into the rest of the reproductive track.
rest of the reproductive track.
And there it is.
Don't get confused of the bladder,
which you will often see
right as you enter into the cow.
As you can see, I'm not
pushing excessively hard
with my arm, into the cow, at this point.
If the cow does have a significant amount of faecal material,
we will need to remove that most likely to improve the contact and the
quality of
the ultrasound image we obtain.
If it's a multiparous cow
and we're wanting to evaluate the ovaries, for example,
we may need to actually
grasp the cervix or
the intercornial ligament
and retract the uterus back into the pelvic canal, so that
we can evaluate all the structures that we need to.
In this cow,
the uterus is located very nicely within the pelvic canal, so I won't
need to do that in this particular cow.
What we'll do now is
locate the cervix again.
Move slightly cranially
or forward within the cow,
always keeping good contact.
Then what we can do is travel up one horn,
up to the ovary
and we can rock side to side
to evaluate the ovarian structures.
We can then come back down that horn
to the body of the uterus,
travel up the opposite horn,
evaluate the ovary on that side
and then come back to the body.
If there are any other structures that we want to visualise within this cow
then we can do that at this time.
Once we've seen everything that we need to see,
we can then gently come out of the cow.