CT is an excellent imaging modality for looking inside the body. It is a cross-sectional technique, meaning that the images of a volume of the body are seen as consecutive slices (think loaf of sliced bread). CT machines are manufactured for people, and the ones situated in veterinary hospitals are the same size. The limitations to patient size are the table weight limit, and the opening of the gantry itself. Dogs and cats fit in the gantry with no problem. Horses are another story.
Some veterinary facilities have modified their tables to take a horse’s weight. But the gantry is still the same diameter, so we are limited to the body parts that fit in it. Images of the head and upper neck, and lower limbs are possible, and often give very valuable information.
Every now and then, we get calls from an MD who would like to send a large human patient to our CT scanner. It’s become a bit of an urban legend that veterinary hospitals have supersized machines. The issues are liability for the veterinary facility, and gantry size. Here’s an article that explores the problem in depth…
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