Learning pregnancy detection with ultrasound

During my AI diary, I went on an extended riff about ultrasounds. 

I decided that the topic merited it's own blog. Like the AI Diary, there are going to be multiple entries as I go through the learning process, making my share of mistakes along the way.

​My sincerest gratitude to the members of my Facebook ultrasound group. They have been more than generous with their guidance and feedback during this process. My thanks also to the Animal Ultrasound Group for their educational videos.

Barbarella at 39 days

Index of topics:

December 22: Fails
December 28: More fails
January 2: I found the bladder! (SMH)
January 7: Steps I learned from an ADGA Presentation
January 10: Learning from mistakes
​January 11: Some scans tracking the progression of pregnancies
January 16: Early pregnancy detection
January 25: More on early pregnancies

As predicted, after some epic bumbling around, I am feeling competent and confident in my abilities to detect pregnancies using my VIS Scan Pad. Yay me! (link to buy your own!)

​It helps that I know my learning process, otherwise this would have been really discouraging.

Finally, I'm not going to sweat counting fetuses or looking for specific body parts. I've got way too much on my plate to worry about that level of detail. For more information on those topics, check out the FB Dairy Goat Ultrasound group.

To scroll through the tabs, hover above the far left or far right until an arrow appears.

• December 22
• December 28
• January 2
• January 7
• January 10
• January 11
• January 16
• January 25

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Isn't the bladder fun? Isn't it the most interesting thing to ultrasound?

​December 22, 2021

​Dear Diary, 

I've been obsessing over ultrasounds lately, trying to improve my skills. I have definitely gotten better at finding bladders in my goats.

At least that was the feedback when I shared Clover's videos with some other ultrasound enthusiasts. That's her bladder, along with more feedback about changing my settings.

​Clearly there was a lot more that I needed to learn. 

Anyhow, here are some lovely photos of her bladder on 12-22 (25 days post AI).

On a technical note, here are the settings that I've found effective in pregnancy detection. Or, at least helpful when trying to see stuff.

• AP: set at 82%
• Depth: in early pregnancy using lower settings (6-8), then increasing the setting gradually over time. 
• Gain: pretty much always at 100%
• Focus (the cm scale on the right), set to lower middle of the image
• Probe position: see the presentation in the link below.

​Let's throw in some wishful thinking.

Dear Diary,

​Thirty days post-AI Clover once again insisted on jumping up on the stand, so I did a bit more US practice on her. It was rainy, so she was not thrilled about the gel situation and moved around A LOT. Probably should throw the tube in the microwave first next time. I wonder if I can find a small massage oil warmer for the barn? Yup, just checked, there's one on Amazon.

Anyhow, here's one of the ultrasounds.

It looks different to me. Do you see the three little sacs to the left of the "bladder?"

​Probably just wishful thinking.

P.S. My baby bottle warmer ended up being perfect for warming the ultrasound gel.

It's her bladder.

January 2, 2022

Dear Diary,

Clover was displaying a weak heat this morning. She was standing on the fence line, getting the boys' interest, but not flagging. I'm not rebreeding her because she looks too thin to my eyes. If the AI didn't take, then she's officially retired.
​
​After ultrasounding Clover (again), she hopped down and peed. 

Perfect timing.

I tested my hypothesis (see the 12-30 entry) by putting her back up on the stand and ultrasounding her again.

​She is so done with me.

It was her bladder. Either that or she drained fluid out of her uterus, which is pretty unlikely.

Girl, you need to pee more often so that you don't get a bladder infection!

​​Which leaves me wondering what those sacs were.

I dropped a blood sample from Clover in the mail. But, I'm sure that she's open, because there's no obvious signs of a fetus and it's 33 days post AI.

​My sweet mamacita is now retired.

Find the bladder

Dear Diary,

I learned something really cool today.

I learned how to hold the probe so that it aligned with the image on the screen. The probe has a little ridge on one side that should correspond with the little square at the top left of the screen. 

The second thing that I learned was how to find the bladder AND what it should look like.

The bladder is round and can be found by angling the probe up and back. If it is kidney shaped, then you're pressing too hard with the probe. 

Finding the bladder is important because it helps you orient yourself when ultrasounding a doe. It's also important because, during early pregnancy, the sacs form near the bladder.​

The bladder is round and can be found by angling the probe up and back. If it is kidney shaped, then you're pressing too hard with the probe. ​

For more on this topic, see the ADGA Presentation. The link is at the bottom of this page.

The results are in

I just received the blood test results on Clover. 

She's open.

Why share this information?

I'm sharing this information because mistakes are an essential part of the learning process. I'm also sharing it because mistakes provide valuable information, provided that we take the time to reflect and learn from them.

Here's a great TED talk on the topic of learning from mistakes.

Let's try again . . . 

Dear Diary,

​After reflecting on my mistakes, I decided that it was time to go back to the ultrasound machine. This time, without overanalyzing the scans.

Pregnancies should be easy to find by 30 days. If it's hard to find at 30 days, it's not there.

NEW RULE: If I don't see anything obvious after 5 minutes or less when the probe is correctly placed, the bladder identified, and the depth at 8-9, then I'm going to call them open or too early to tell.

To be fair, members of the Ultrasound group have repeatedly shared that pregnancies should be easy to find by 30 days. I guess that I had to quantify for myself what "easy to find" means. (face/palm)

​The short version is that Cielo, Leia, Sugar, and Adele were all open/too early to tell.

Finally, I thought it might be helpful to include the progression of a couple of confirmed pregnancies.

Progression of confirmed pregnancies

Cleo at 25 days - I'm not calling this confirmed yet.

Barbarella at 30 days - lightened picture

Barbarella at 39 days pregnant

As the pregnancy advanced, I had to increase the depth to get all of the image in the screen. Here I'm at 9.5.

Barbarella at 46 days pregnant - depth was set at 10.5.

Martini at 60 days pregnant - depth was set at 12

Martini at 76 days pregnant - depth was increased to 13.

Early pregnancy ultrasounds are so fun!

Dear Diary,

Lessons learned!

Today I went out with a list of does to ultrasound. The majority were still too early to tell, but I did manage to capture some early images that got me very excited about my new skills.

Sun Hat at 26 days

Sun Hat - 26 days

Cielo - 25 days

Here's how I found these images:

• Align the probe
• Make good contact in the very top of the "armpit"
• Adjust depth, starting at 8 and going up
• Find the bladder
• In the early pregnancy, the gestational sacs will be near the bladder.

Cielo's images were not as crisp as Sun Hat's. Even a day can make a difference at this point. Adele is at 24 days, Ice Jam and Hazel are at 21 days, and there was nothing to see yet. They may be open, but I doubt that all three are open at this point, it's not like they were AI'd!  ;)

Detecting early pregnancies

Dear Diary,

Today my goal was to get systematic about detecting early pregnancies. 

Here's what I learned after annoying several does in the five-day window (25 days-post breeding).

1. Make good contact high up in the armpit (plenty of lube)
2. Rotate probe so that it points horizontally towards the body
​3. Apply a light pressure
​4. Settings between 6-8 depth
5. Fat goats are harder to ultrasound

That's it.

Et voila!

​Bewitched, who had been giving up zero information (she's a chonk), displayed her lovely little gestational sacs.

Resources

I've made a vague effort to list these in order of helpfulness.

• ADGA Presentation - Ultrasound Basics
• Developmental stages on ultrasound
• ​The ruminant uterus on ultrasound - has great images
• Goat Fetal Development Chart - courtesy of the Goat Lady
• Pregnancy Scanning: Top Tips to Success - includes images of different organs to help with diagnosis (kidney, spleen, liver, bowel loops, gestational sac)
• Animal Ultrasound Association YouTube videos
• Canine pregnancy scans on VIS Scan Pad - useful for seeing settings used by professionals
• Small Ruminant Ultrasound instructional videos
• Pregnancy Diagnosis in Goats article
• Advances in Ultrasonography - article with images of ultrasounds
• Ultrasonic Imaging in Small Ruminant Reproduction
• Contec Ultrasound instructional video