Endoscopy

Endoscopy is a procedure that lets us look inside your pet's body. It uses an instrument called an endoscope, or scope for short. Scopes have a tiny camera attached to a long, thin tube. The veterinarian moves it through a body passageway or opening to see inside an organ. Sometimes scopes are used for surgery, such as for removing a foreign object from the stomach. There are many different kinds of endoscopy.

Here are the names of some of them and where they look:
Arthroscopy: joints
Bronchoscopy: lungs
Colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy: large intestine
Cystoscopy and ureteroscopy: urinary system
Laparoscopy: abdomen or pelvis
Otoscopy: ear canal
Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: esophagus and stomach
Vaginoscopy: vaginal area and cervix

At Memorial-610 Hospital for Animals, we routinely use endoscopy and a less invasive way to not only make a diagnosis, but also for treatments as well.  An example of a common procedure is to remove a small object from the stomach that a patient has swallowed.