• Jantina McMurray, Søren Boysen, and Serge Chalhoub.
• Department of Veterinary Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N  4Z6, Canada.
• J Vet Emerg Crit Care (San Antonio). 2016 Jan 1; 26 (1): 64-73.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the use of abdominal- and thoracic-focused assessment with sonography for trauma (AFAST and TFAST) in nontraumatized dogs and cats in the emergency and critical care setting and to compare prevalence of free fluid identified via these techniques between stable and unstable patients.DesignProspective observational study.SettingUniversity Distributed Veterinary Learning Community.AnimalsOne hundred client-owned dogs and cats presenting to an emergency service with no evidence of trauma.InterventionsAFAST and TFAST performed within 12 hours of presentation.Measurement And Main ResultsFree fluid was identified on AFAST or TFAST in 33% of dogs and cats in this study. Free fluid was identified in 27 of 36 (75%) cardiovascularly unstable or dyspneic patients, compared to 6 of 64 (9%) stable patients. A significantly greater proportion of unstable patients had free fluid compared to stable patients (P < 0.0001).ConclusionsResults of this study support the use of AFAST and TFAST to detect free fluid in nontraumatized dogs and cats in the emergency and critical care setting, particularly patients that are unstable on presentation.© Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society 2015.

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