Hospital Opening Hours

• Monday: 8.30 to 5.30
• Tuesday 8.30 to 5.30
• Wednesday: 9 to 1
• Thursday: 8.30 to 5.30
• Friday: 8.30 to 5.30
• Saturday: 9 to 1
• Sunday: Closed

7047 Great Alpine Road,
Porepunkah, VIC 3740

Radiology (x-ray) is a crucial part of every veterinarian’s arsenal of diagnostic tools. The Radiology Suite at Alpine Animal Doctors is equipped to provide our clients with exceptional levels of radiography services.

Our modern, fully digital x-ray equipment completely eliminates old-fashioned film, providing incredibly detailed images on a medical grade computer monitor.

With these images we can not only see far more detail than we could ever get from a film, using specialised software we can zoom in on small areas, rotate an image, and accurately measure things like the length of a break in a bone, or the displacement of a joint.

Digital x-ray images are also available instantly, meaning your pet needs to be sedated for the shortest possible period and minimising risk of complications.

All of these things mean we can offer our clients an extensive range of radiology services at a very affordable cost.

We can x-ray an area as small as a single tooth or as big as the entire spinal cord of a medium-sized dog.

Because the level of detail is so much greater we can now use digital x-rays to assist in the diagnosis of many conditions including scans of soft tissue. The primary use however remains the imaging of skeletal conditions.

Radiology imaging services are available for everything from examining the level of bone density and measuring the extent of degradation caused by arthritis to diagnosing congenital bone defects and, of course, providing crystal clear images of broken bones.

One of our more frequent uses of x-rays is as a tool to help establish hip scores in dogs. Hip scoring is a method of predicting the level of predisposition for a particular dog to develop hip dysplasia, and subsequently, Osteoarthritis (OA).

Although it’s used primarily by breeders and by the veterinary profession to establish a database of breeds prone to hip dysplasia, hip scoring can also be an important tool for any dog owner. With our pets living longer than ever before the incidence of painful Osteoarthritis is increasing. There is a large genetic component contributing to the possibility of your dog developing this painful degenerative disease.

While every breed has some propensity to hip dysplasia some breeds fare better than others. And, within breeds, individual dogs will score higher when they have been bred from parents with good hip scores.

Testing for hip dysplasia scores uses specific x-ray views which are sent to specialist centres in the USA for scoring by expert consultant radiologists and, as recommended by PennHIP, to consulting radiologists here in Australia. The use of digital x-rays for hip scoring helps ensure more accurate readings and a faster turnaround time than conventional film. The ability to send an x-ray to a referral specialist via email also cuts down the time needed to get results.

At Alpine Animal Doctors we use the PennHIP method, developed over 20 years ago at the University of Pennsylvania, and, by any measure, far more accurate than the older AVA method. Dr Bek is one of only a few hundred vets, out of around 8,000 practising in Australia, certified in the use of the PennHIP scoring sysyem.

Whether your pet has a broken leg and needs an x-ray prior to orthopaedic surgery, requires cruciate ligament repair or you are a breeder keen to get accurate hip scores for your dogs, our modern radiology suite can give you the answers.

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