FA GI Diagnostics & GI Surgery Principles

Ruminant Pings

Hear a great ping at the UPenn dairy case site

Left sided pings

  •  Rumen – high horizontal ping. Can be heard with pinging the transverse processes
  •  LDA – ping at angle from the hip bones to the elbow. Is not heard when pinging the transverse processes
    • If it stays low, there are likely adhesions preventing the gas from floating up
  • Uterus (bilateral) – caudal ping
  • Pneumoperitoneum (bilateral) – high ping (gas floats)
Rumen or pneumoperitoneum ping.
LDA
Uterus

Right sided pings

  • duodenum – crosses the paralumbar fossa and forward under the last two rib spaces. Can be quite large and difficult to differentiate from other pings
  • abomasum- on an angle from the hip bones to the elbow. Abomasal volvulus and RDAs have the same ping
  • small intestine – multiple tones in the paralumbar fossa
  • cecum- large ping extending horizontally below the transverse processes; can extend up to 3 feet long
  • spiral colon – multiple tones in the paralumbar fossa
  • uterus (bilateral)- caudal ping
  • pneumoperitoneum (bilateral)- high ping
  • rectum (post palpation)- caudal ping
RDA or abomasal volvulus
Duodenal ping
Spiral colon or small intestinal pings
cecum or pneumoperitoneum
rectal ping
uterus

License

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Large Animal Surgery - Supplemental Notes by Erin Malone, DVM, PhD; Elaine Norton, DVM PhD; Erica Dobbs, DVM; and Ashley Ezzo, DVM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.