For this latest blog installment, I have decided to go a bit off topic. As a small business owner, I am asked all the time—how, or more importantly why, do you run an engineering and manufacturing company in the U.S. these days. Well, it is a great question and one that keeps me up at night.

E.I. Medical Imaging, Loveland, CO

You cannot turn on the news, regardless of how you get your news, to hear the dismal stories of American manufacturing jobs leaving the US. We are not here to get into a political debate, but the statistics do not lie. Don’t get me wrong, things are improving, but of all small business firms in the US, only 2% are categorized as manufacturing firms.¹

Dr. Michelle Oakley, Yukon Vet, uses an IBEX^® EVO^® in the wild. She is using the L6E probe [linear transducer, 5-8 MHz, 18 cm depth] and wearing our latest high-resolution i3 goggles.

Image: IBEX^® EVO^® + L7HD, in a Holstein cow

Mummification in bovine fetuses has an incidence of less than 2%. It occurs when there is fetal death for any number of reasons (Trichomoniasis and BVD infections have been specifically implicated as causes), but the CL is retained, the cervix stays closed, and there is no bacteria or oxygen present in the uterus to cause maceration. 

It's that time—time to trade-in to trade-up to the latest ultrasound technology for equine reproduction.
Trade in any manufacturer's ultrasound to earn $3000 or more toward purchase. Watch the video to learn more...

Click here to get more information on trading-in to trade-up for equine reproduction, or call us at 1.866.365.6596. To download details on upgrade options, click here.

Last month I had the pleasure of teaching at the Colorado VMA’s small ruminant meeting, and it got me thinking about some of the common misconceptions and mistakes made when using ultrasound to diagnose pregnancy in sheep and goats. I thought I might take this opportunity to highlight my top five tips.

With our next generation EVO^® II and FASTVet™, you can be using ultrasound EVERY DAY in your companion animal practice! 

With FASTVet™ techniques, you don’t need to be an expert sonographer to assess and monitor your patients. These are standardized, goal-directed exams that any veterinarian can easily learn and implement. Built-in procedural videos provide immediate assistance in performing FASTVet™ protocols. And in emergencies, no other tool offers such unparalleled, exigent diagnostic assistance.

All ultrasounds have gain control. It’s often a knob, button, and/or a series of sliders on the console, and it’s one of the most used and adjusted scanning parameters... but do you know what it really does?

Most people think of gain as a brightness adjuster, and while it’s true that turning your gain up will brighten the image, it’s helpful to understand how it actually works. Gain is a uniform amplification of the ultrasonic signal that is returning to the transducer after it travels through the tissue. So rather than brightening the monitor, the image on the screen is whitened by a uniform margin, as though the returning signal is stronger than it is, to make it easier to see.

There are an overwhelming number of transducer (probe) options on the market these days, marketed for different species and applications. What do you need to consider when selecting one? Whether you are shopping for a new system or transducer, or simply deciding which of your current probes to use for a specific purpose, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

You’ve probably noticed that the transducers, or probes, on your ultrasound system are named or marked with a number followed by ”MHz”, most likely in the 1-20 range. Often this is how a company advertises their products – for example, a 7MHz linear rectal transducer. Perhaps you’ve wondered what this number refers to or the significance of having a higher or lower number on your probe.

IBEX^® EVO^® II

The next generation of our flagship model, EVO^® II offers:

• 3x brighter display—a NIT rating of 1200 [original EVO^® has a NIT rating 400].
• The EVO^® II supports the new L7HD transducer [see below].
• Version 2.0 firmware—improved image quality and feature set.

EVO^® II is the latest, most advanced model in the Ibex^® family, with significantly better image resolution, color-flow Doppler, remote control, improved features and remote image-viewing apps. The EVO^® II is ideal for equine and bovine practices, companion animal practices, zoos, and anyone demanding a high-quality image in a robust system.