Best Stethoscope

[Jaime L]

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What is the best Stethoscope for vet School? Planning on specializing in large animal.

 

[pp9]

I like my Littman cardio IV. It’s never failed to pick up murmurs that you can’t hear (or can’t hear nearly as well) with other stethoscopes. I do zoo and it is still good for large animals sound-wise, but food animal/equine practitioners sometimes choose a longer tubing. That keeps your head a little farther away from the animal/allows you to listen through chutes more easily and can sacrifice the quality of the sound a bit, but is usually a bit safer.

In school, you probably don’t need to spend a ton on a stethoscope fwiw. They get stuffed in your bag and beat up. You can always ask your large animal clinicians what they use and go with that recommendation too.

 

[VIN-Foundation]

I've had a Littman 3 for decades and it's all I need. The 4 (cardiology) has better acoustics but I'm not good enough to tell a difference. Besides, I don't want to pick up subtle murmurs because it just delays getting the patient to surgery 🙂

For large animals, some people prefer a bit longer tubing as it gets your head a little further away from the kick zone. So pay attention to that.

 

[supershorty]

I like my Littman cardio IV. It’s never failed to pick up murmurs that you can’t hear (or can’t hear nearly as well) with other stethoscopes. I do zoo and it is still good for large animals sound-wise, but food animal/equine practitioners sometimes choose a longer tubing. That keeps your head a little farther away from the animal/allows you to listen through chutes more easily and can sacrifice the quality of the sound a bit, but is usually a bit safer.

In school, you probably don’t need to spend a ton on a stethoscope fwiw. They get stuffed in your bag and beat up. You can always ask your large animal clinicians what they use and go with that recommendation too.

I have the cardio IV as well and like it a lot. It picks up subtle murmurs and it's lasted well over the years. I'm a small animal person so have the shorter tubing, but it's easy enough to get the longer tubing instead.

There are usually decent sales on the Littman stethoscopes closer to the new school year starting, FWIW.

 

[JaynaAli]

I would get something fairly cheap for school then treat yourself or get someone to give you a nicer one as a graduation gift. I was gifted a Littmann Classic 2 by my pre-vet club and it was more than sufficient to get the job done and it’s like $100+ less than the cardiology versions. Then when you’re in school try out different stethoscopes and see what you like. Cardio at my school had a whole huge variety of brands for us to try and the one I liked best was the Welch Allyn Harvey Elite; if I’d have stayed in practice instead of pathology I would have probably upgraded to that. But I could hear murmurs just fine with the cheap Classic 2; it’s more skill than the equipment at the level you need as a vet student (provided you’re not talking about like a $5 toy off of amazon). There’s nothing wrong with getting the ‘nice’ one early, but things get lost, broken, and you won’t appreciate the differences early on anyway. Just an alternative viewpoint.