Veterinary dentistry progresses all the time and like human dentistry, special dentistry equipment is required. We have a dedicated digital dental X-ray machine and dental machine that allows us to ultrasonically descale and polish teeth as well as giving us the facility to perform more serious dental surgery if required.

Dental disease affects the entire body and impacts the comfort and long‐term health of your pet! Dentistry is a very important part of pet health care. Dental check‐ups and cleanings help to prevent dental problems and ensure that any problems that do arise are identified and treated as early as possible. Visit our services page to learn more about dental health.

A microscope is a fascinating and essential tool in the aiding of diagnoses. Microscopes are used to identify skin problems, blood cell recognition and urine analysis (a great help and interest to our trainee nurses).

Crossroads has a state-of-the-art high definition ultrasound machine which is used daily to investigate disease in our patients. The machine is used in three main areas:

• Investigation of abdominal problems
  Ultrasound scans of the abdomen allow us to investigate possible problems in the major body systems: liver, kidney, stomach, intestines, pancreas, adrenal glands, bladder, uterus and the abdominal lymph nodes.
• Pregnancy diagnosis
  Ultrasound scanning is very useful in determining if your bitch is pregnant or not. Scanning can be used to estimate the age of the puppies if there is doubt over the serving date, and if they are all healthy (the machine allows us to see and hear the foetal heartbeat).
• Heart scanning
  Heart scanning (also called echocardiography) is used to produce detailed images of the heart on the screen. The heart is visualised in real-time on the screen so the sonographer can see directly how well it is working. Precise measurements can be made of various heart dimensions - such as chamber size and thickness - which are used in the diagnosis of heart disease, and the functioning of the valves can be checked.

We have fully equipped x-ray facilities which allows us to obtain diagnostic images within a matter of a few minutes. Our X‐ray machine is always in action taking radiographs of animals as small as mice up to the size of a Great Dane! Taking X-rays can be used for many very important conditions including orthopaedic injury, tumours, heart disease, as well as many abdominal problems.

These x-rays enable us to get a better "picture" of what might be going on inside your pet.

We also have a digital dental X-ray machine which provides critical information about your pet’s dental health below the gum line.

It's often necessary to sedate a patient so that a more accurate diagnostic x‐ray can be acquired. Why is sedation used? Animals don't understand what is going on when an x-ray is taken so keeping them relaxed and still while positioning them for an accurate picture is difficult so sedation is used.