Figure 1 X-ray of a 3-year-old castrated short-haired male cat with a history of chronic intermittent reflux. This probe can't see the esophagus. (a) lateral x-rays. (b) X-ray film of abdomen and back. (c) The feeding tube (arrow) determines the position of the esophagus of this fatty cat, otherwise the esophagus will not be visible. Liver, stomach
On the abdominal lateral radiograph (Figure 2), the normal stomach axis makes an angle of 30 degrees with the line perpendicular to the spine. Most cats have a big sickle-shaped fat pad that can lift the liver and stomach. On the ventral or ventral projection, the cat's stomach is J-shaped, and the pylorus overlaps with the spine image or is located on the right side of the spine. There are various volumes of gas and indigestion in the stomach. Ray-transparent band structures can be seen on the stomach wall of some cats. 15 cats were scanned by CT, and 4 of them could find low attenuation layer structure, which may be related to band structure. CT and autopsy found that the banded structure in X-ray film represents submucosal fat.
Other parts of the gastrointestinal tract can be identified by the gas or shape in it. Normal small intestine shows longitudinal fluctuation and fluid turbidity. Usually there is gas in the stomach and small intestine, but the diameter of the small intestine should not exceed twice the height of the central part of the lumbar spine, or the distance between serosa layers should not exceed 12 mm in the cross-sectional image. If there is a small amount of gas in the intestine, the intestine looks like a doughnut. If you find a radiopaque foreign body, be sure to check for perforation or blockage. The dog's cecum is like a big pig's tail, while the cat's cecum is very thin, shaped like a comma, and rarely contains air. Colons vary in size, either filled with feces or gas or empty. Seeing smooth non-granular contents in the colon during diarrhea indicates the presence of fluid in the intestine. When evaluating the colon diameter of cats, 50 healthy cats were compared with sick cats with megacolon or constipation symptoms. The ratio of maximum colon diameter to L5 lumbar vertebra in healthy cats should be less than 1.28.
Fig. 2 X-ray film of gastrointestinal tract in normal cats. (a) Normal fasting image of lateral radiograph, with black curve representing the anterior segment of colon. (b) On the lateral radiograph, we can see that there is gas and indigestion in the normally filled stomach. (c) The X-ray photograph of the cat's abdomen in Figure A ... The arrow indicates that the stomach is greatly bent. (d) X-ray photograph of the cat's abdomen in Figure B .. c, colon; L, liver; S, spleen; Saint, stomach.