Veterinary Ultrasound Machine 2023 Buyer’s Guide

Premium or “high-end” ultrasound machines feature the latest hardware and software advancements that provide the best image quality, productivity, and advanced analysis tools. These systems have a large high-resolution display, transducers with the latest technology, and “Smart” measurement packages that can perform full measurements without any input from the user. Mindray Animal offers the Vetus 9 console and the M9 Vet portable ultrasound machines in this category. Both of these are shared service systems, but most importantly, they can do advanced cardiovascular imaging. The Mindray M9 Vet has a cardiac single Crystal probe and the Mindray Vetus 9 has cardiac and abdominal single-crystal probes. (Mindray’s highest quality imaging probes). If you’re in a large hospital setting or need advanced cardiac options, take a look at the Vetus 9 and M9 vet. Furthermore, these machines have 5 years of warranty coverage.

In the mid-range category, there are many options from which you can choose. Mindray Animal offers the M6 Vet, TE5 Vet, Vetus E7, and Vetus EQ, which are all portable, and the Vetus 7, a console unit. While all of these are mid-range. There are different reasons which would narrow down what system would work best for you. The Mindray M6 Vet is an all-around workhorse and has the most features for the price. The Mindray TE5 Vet is a touchscreen system, we recommend it for critical care or an ER setting because it’s easy to keep clean and has a probe with 3 programmable buttons to free up one hand during procedures. The Mindray Vetus E7 and Mindray Vetus EQ are the same, however, the EQ is for equine imaging only. The Vetus E7 is currently the most popular Mindray portable veterinary ultrasound machine on the market. And that’s for many reasons but to name a few—it runs on the zone sonography technology platform and has one-touch transducer and preset switching with built-in veterinary presets segmented by species size. Lastly, there is a console option in this category called the Mindray Vetus 7. Some of these units also include features available on the premium veterinary ultrasounds we mentioned in the premium category. These systems are great options for small to mid-size vet practices and hospitals AND they all include a 5-year warranty.

In the basic category, you’re looking at two options. The Mindray DP-50 Vet and Mindray Z60 Vet. These are both great entry-level options that offer good imaging quality at a very affordable price. There is a step-down in warranty coverage from 5 to 3 years. These systems still offer a wide range of probes. They aren’t the best imaging quality but they definitively get the job done for scans like small animal abdominal, AFAST, TFAST, and reproduction imaging.

The budget category includes the Mindray DP-10 Vet and Mindray DP-30 Vet. We would only recommend these as options if you have budget constraints, don't need color imaging, or are only doing specific scans like repro for equine or bovine. These systems include a 3-year warranty.