What Does Listening to Your Pet With a Stethoscope Tell Us?
The humble stethoscope is synonymous with medical care. It's literally the first medical tool we get as doctors, and it's a part of our identity. But what do we actually learn when we listen to your pet with a stethoscope? To find out, let's start by figuring out how a stethoscope works. How a Stethoscope Works Old-School Stethoscope A stethoscope works by simply amplifying the sounds of whatever it's pressed against. It's a really old-school medical instrument: It's literally just a hollow tube with one end enlarged to amplify sound (the end against your pet) and the other end narrowed to allow us to hear the sound (the end we poke in our ears). Sounds Good Firstly, it's important to understand that sound is simply waves of air. These waves of air push on our ear drums, causing them to wiggle and, through a series of complicated maneuvers in our middle and inner ears, gets turned into nerve impulses which our brain interprets as sound. The stethoscope turn...