Over the next few weeks we will be turning the spotlight onto you, looking at your experiences of ultrasound imaging. Each article will focus on an individual’s ultrasonography journey, and should hopefully give a taste of what it is like to be an ultrasound practitioner for anyone considering undertaking a similar career path. If you would like to be involved in this series, please contact us and we will send you a short questionnaire to fill out.

We start this series by looking at Mark Crompton (MC Breeding Services), an established Bulldog breeder. Mark comes from a family very familiar with animals, including his Grandfather who played a big role in his life. Mark decided to start scanning due to the lack of a readily available practitioner in his area, and underwent training through Vet Image Solutions and Defra. The Sonoscape A5 is the scanner of choice for him due to the quality of the images returned and the variety of compatible probes available for use on different animals. Mark currently uses ultrasonography for confirming pregnancy on animals that include dogs, cats and rabbits. The establishment of pregnancy and knowledge of the stage of gestation is very important to breeders and farmers (as has been previously reported on the VIS website), and ultrasonography is the perfect tool by which to do this. In addition, Mark hopes to become more familiar with scanning snakes and reptiles, using veterinary ultrasound as an aid in the identification of gender of the animal in question.

He explains that although conventional farmyard animals such as cows and sheep are a lucrative business prospect, the periodic nature of work here can be a disadvantage. With such a strong foundation in veterinary ultrasound, Mark hopes that in the future he can continue to build upon his ultrasound understanding and scanning a variety of animals. He explains that he has come to realise that each animal requires an individual approach to scanning as they are all different, an important point to bear in mind for any would-be scanners.

Finally, Mark explained that carrying out ultrasonography is not without its risks – whilst scanning some cows, he found that the cows waiting to be scanned were attempting to pickpocket him! It seems that as a practitioner it is important to make sure your belongings are on you at all times! Be sure to join next time for the second instalment in this series. In the meantime if you have any questions regarding anything in this article, please don’t hesitate to contact us.