The ScanX ultrasound machine is our most popular choice for goat pregnancy scanning, with the Elite 5600 a close second and favored by people on a tighter budget – or as a starter system, with the plan to upgrade to a ScanX in the future using our trade-in scheme.

Sheep ultrasound, on the other hand, has traditionally been dominated by mechanical sector scanners like the MSU 3 portable scanner, but as fewer people scan their own sheep, we have far fewer clients purchasing ultrasound machines for sheep scanning than for other species (dogs, goats, cats, and even snakes).

Today, I took the ScanX for a test drive on a rainy December morning in Faversham, in our home county of Kent (England). The town of Faversham has existed since pre-Roman times, and we visited a small farm on its outskirts, which is home to six ewes and a handful of pigs.

When scanning sheep, I am always struck by how much more obvious and visually obstructive their placentomes are versus those of goats. Scanning a goat, it’s always possible to find a way through to visualize the kid, but with sheep it really can be a battle. It’s for this reason that I find the quality of a machine like the ScanX so vitally important if you want more than a simple yes/no answer on pregnancy. Something like the MSU3 will tell you if a ewe is pregnant or not with ease, but distinguishing the lamb from the placentomes – and therefore confirming fetal viability – can be a real challenge.

Sheep pregnancy scan:

Now compare this with these goat scans from Catherine Bell in the United States, taken at a similar stage of gestation: