Imaging Service

Capital City Specialty & Emergency Animal Hospital has several imaging modalities which are used for the diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring of our patients. These include dental and general radiology (x-rays), ultrasound (internal medicine, cardiology, and point-of-care for emergency and critical care), fluoroscopy, and CT scan. Most of these modalities are used in-house by our specialists and emergency and critical care team, but we also offer outpatient CT scans for our referring veterinarians. Our 64-slice CT scan is the fastest and most accurate CT scan currently available to veterinarians in the National Capital region. Jessica Papineau is our imaging technician. She has many years of experience doing radiographs, CT scans, and MRIs.

What Should You Expect When Booking an Appointment with Our Outpatient Imaging Service at Capital City Specialty & Emergency Animal Hospital?

After your primary care veterinarian refers your pet to [email protected], we will reach out to you as soon as possible to schedule your pet’s CT scan. The regular schedule for the imaging service is Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.

On the day of your pet’s CT scan, your pet should be fasted and admitted with Jessica Papineau at our reception desk at 8 a.m. The admission procedure will involve signing a consent form and paying a deposit. Your pet will require either a sedation or short anesthesia to prevent them from moving while the CT scan is being performed, and so our board-certified specialist anesthesiologist, Dr. Matt Milloway, and the anesthesia team will be involved in the care of your pet. Depending on the reason for the CT scan, Jessica may review the plan for the CT scan with one of our specialists to check the regions to be scanned and whether contrast-enhancement is required or not.

CT scans are typically short procedures and most pets will go home on the same day. Jessica will provide an update once the CT scan has been completed and then schedule a discharge time for your pet once they have recovered from their sedation or anesthesia.

All our CT scans are submitted to a teleradiology service for interpretation by a board-certified imaging specialist. The imaging specialist provides a written report of the CT findings within 24-48 hours, although an expedited report is available for an additional cost. This report will be emailed to you and your family veterinarian.

Your family veterinarian will then discuss this report with you. If necessary, your family veterinarian can then refer you and your pet to one of our specialists for further assessment and treatment.

We strive to provide you and your pet with the highest level of care. We love what we do, we love our patients, and we treat them as if they were our own.