POCUS: Moving Beyond FAST and Free Fluid – Morning Wet Labs ONLY!

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This course is designed to introduce veterinary professionals to the power and practicality of Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in everyday clinical decision-making. The didactic portion of the course is completed online through a series of self-paced learning modules, which participants must complete before attending the in-person wet labs with our POCUS Team. These modules provide the foundational knowledge needed to confidently engage in hands-on training during the live sessions.

Ever wonder why a cat is dyspneic (asthma vs. pleural effusion vs. heart disease) and you cannot obtain thoracic radiographs for fear of decompensation of your patient? Ever debate if you can safely give a patient IV fluids or when you should stop giving IV fluid boluses? Or why an animal presents for “ain’t doing right” with no specific clinical signs?

POCUS is a rapid, focused, and highly informative imaging tool that can be performed in under five minutes and integrated seamlessly into routine practice. With minimal training, any clinician can use POCUS to answer targeted, binary clinical questions—asked at the right time and in the right patient. Rather than placing the probe without intention, effective POCUS relies on identifying the specific question(s) you aim to answer based on history, exam findings, and supporting diagnostics.

POCUS techniques vary depending on the clinical context—trauma, triage, tracking, treatment, or total screening—and differ across abdominal, pleural, pulmonary, vascular, and cardiac applications. When used appropriately, POCUS demonstrates high sensitivity and specificity for detecting abdominal effusion and numerous other abdominal conditions (GI motility changes, bladder volume estimation, gallbladder halo, pneumoperitoneum, renal pelvic dilation). It is also instrumental in identifying key thoracic, vascular, and cardiac pathologies such as pneumothorax, pleural effusion, alveolar-interstitial disease, heart failure, pericardial effusion, and intravascular volume status.

Following completion of the online modules, participants will attend in-person wet labs led by two of the field’s pioneering veterinary POCUS experts—expect lively discussion, case-based teaching, and individualised guidance. Live-animal scanning labs will reinforce core concepts and give participants extensive hands-on practice. As time permits, ultrasound-guided vascular access techniques will also be demonstrated and practised using chicken breast phantom models—an invaluable skill for patients with challenging IV access due to dehydration, edema, thick skin, or hematomas.

Learning objectives:

After completing both the online and in-person components to this course, participants will be able to:

Foundations & Clinical Application

1. Explain the difference between FAST and POCUS and how POCUS should be applied clinically.
2. Identify the appropriate binary question to ask based on patient presentation and exam findings.
3. Describe the clinical indications for performing POCUS.
4. Explain how patient positioning and pathology type influence POCUS technique.

Abdominal POCUS

1. Identify the five key abdominal POCUS sites (subxiphoid, left paralumbar, right paralumbar, bladder, umbilical) and recognize normal findings.
2. Describe common abdominal pathologies detectable with POCUS (effusion, ileus, bladder volume, pneumoperitoneum, gallbladder halo, renal pelvic dilation).

Pleural & Lung Ultrasound (PLUS)

1. Define pleural and lung ultrasound and outline how PLUS is performed.
2. Explain the importance of PLUS borders.
3. Recognize normal PLUS findings (glide sign, bat sign, A-lines, B-lines, Z-lines, lung pulse, curtain sign).
4. Identify common thoracic pathologies detectable with PLUS (pleural effusion, wet lung, subpleural consolidations, pneumothorax).
5. Describe how PLUS adapts based on patient position and where pathology accumulates.

Cardiovascular POCUS

1. Define cardiovascular POCUS and recognize normal anatomical views (short and long axis of the heart, chambers, caudal vena cava).
2. Describe key cardiovascular pathologies identified using POCUS (pericardial effusion, enlarged LA:Ao ratio, caudal vena cava changes, volume status assessment).

Ultrasound-Guided Procedures

1. Demonstrate in-plane and out-of-plane ultrasound-guided vascular access techniques.
2. Prepare a raw chicken phantom model to practice ultrasound-guided procedures.