Stethoscopes! Again!

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millieKit

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I know there are several threads about this already so I apologize that I'm beating a dead horse (figuratively, naturally). I have a Littmann Classic II SE that I am pretty dissatisfied with. I can't hear murmurs well and have a difficult time appreciating breath sounds, particularly in areas like barns that are less than quiet. I am currently a 3rd year vet student and I want to upgrade so I can get used to a better scope before I enter my clinical year. My life plans are to be a mixed practice/"country" vet with a focus on small ruminants and camelids as well as your basic dogs and cats. My plan was to keep my classic II as my "barn" scope and use the new one in small animal practice. If I like the new one, I might purchase a second one just like it for the barn so I'd like to purchase one that will be good for all creatures...you know the rest.

I have narrowed it to the Littmann Master Cardiology and the Littmann Cardiology III. I'm trying to get a sense if the second (pediatric) head on the cardiology III is useful in general practice. I like that the Master Cardio has a lower profile head, but if there is actual use for the pediatric head in the cardiology III, I'll probably go with that one.

Also, I'm leaning toward the 27 in length, but if people have noticed a significant acoustic difference with the shorter tubing, I'd be interested to hear.

Thanks!

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Not a vet, but I own both a Cards III and a Classic II. The sound quality is very similar on both, but the pediatric head on the Cards III has been indispensable to me, as I dealt with both adult and pediatric patients, often during the same shift. I'd imagine the same would hold true in vet school, since you'll have quite a range of patient sizes. Really though, I don't find the Cardiology III to be any louder than the Classic II, so if that's the big thing you're looking for, you might be disappointed.
 
i have the cardio III, and i used the peds bell a lot...until i got to 4th year. now i rarely use it. idk why per say. however, i used my CIII on the farm a bunch and HATED the extra bulk for LA stuff. i think if your goals are mixed practice of any sorts then i'd say skip the CIII and if you find yourself wishing you had a peds bell then invest in one of those separately.

have you looked at welch-allyn? there are lots of WA lovers out there too.
 
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Are you sure that it's your stethoscope and not your auscultation technique that is the problem? As in, are you hearing the same murmurs and breathing sounds much better with someone else's
Cardio III?

I ask that not to be condescending, but because back as a third year when I wasn't getting much experience hearing actual murmurs (much less enough of them to grade), crackles, and wheezes... it almost felt like my stethoscope was an auditory imaginoscope. Even when professors brought in their pets with murmurs, I could maybe agree that there might be a murmur in the loud room full of students but couldn't be convinced (though the idiot kiss asses in the class who weren't really hearing anything either would go "ooooh ahhhh, yess such a wonderful murmur" and make others feel like crap). I learned later that esp with cat murmurs, they're more like subtle pattern recognition - it just sounds off - rather than an actual swoosh swoosh sound in many cases. That realization made me catch a ton more of them. And that's hard to do until you're listening to multiple normal animals in a day.

When you're in ER with the heart failure/asthma patients or on cardio rotation, I promise you that you won't miss them. When they're there they're there! Just like when you're learning to read fecals and they're mostly negative you start scratching your head wondering why you're not seeing anything and blame the microscope, but bam! The first positive one will make you realize how obvious those eggs are.

Honestly, clinically I only care about grade II+ murmurs, and I usually don't miss them regardless of whether I'm using my beloved cardio III or a random classic lying around. If I do, it's because the animal is not positioned where I can access the PMI on a focal murmur, or the animal can't stop growling, or the owners won't stop yapping or something like that. It's almost never the stethoscope's fault.
 
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I have a Littman classic II S.E. and a Littman Master Classic II. You can definitely hear better with the master classic, and I thought it was pretty good until I used a professors Cardio III yesterday...and WOW. I never knew you could hear that clearly! I was AMAZED!
 
First time I used a welch allen harvey elite stethoscope I was amazed. If I were buying one that's what I'd buy. But money is tight and my gifted Littman is sufficient for vet school.
 
I have a Littman master cardiology and am really satisfied with it. I like the flatter single head, especially for getting in behind the shoulder of horses and cows. I originally had the Littman classic and didn't have a problem with heart sounds but wasn't satisfied with hearing tracheal and lung sounds with it.
 
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