Last month we had David Kennard's latest working recruit, Alfie, in the surgery (read all about it at http://www.boroughfarm.co.uk/category/borough-farm-diaries/sheepdog-diaries/)

David asked me for a photo of one of Alfie's Xrays (technically speaking, Xrays are the radiation waves that produce an image called a radiograph, but you know what I mean) which is on the left. Fortunately it looks as if Alfie is probably clear of developmental disease which is a great relief for a sheepdog!

I was reading another practice website recently where they were extolling the virtues of their new 'digital radiography' machine. Basically this processes the image direct to a computer so that it can be manipulated. Our processors (we have Xray facilities at Braunton and at Roundswell) use chemicals and are a bit of a pain in the neck to be perfectly honest. However, to replace them with digital radiography would cost around £60,000 and we cannot justify that. The numbers of radiographs we take have fallen over the years anyway, mainly due to having ultrasound scanners which can give similarly useful information in many cases, without having to anaesthetise or sedate the animal.

It would be lovely to have a new toy, but sadly we will have to persist with our chemicals for now!