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What's New

Preparing for Surgery

FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ELECTIVE SURGERY:

HOME PREPARATION FOR SURGERY:
No food after 8:00 p.m. the night BEFORE surgery. Free choice water should remain available at all times. Exercise your pet the morning of surgery before bringing to the clinic to encourage movements.

WHEN YOUR PET IS ADMITTED:
Be sure to tell us about anything concerning him/her we should know before surgery. Ask us any questions you might have. We really do want you to understand what we are doing, and why we are doing it. Consider additional simple procedures that are much cheaper to do when your pet is already anesthetized for other surgery. These procedures do not greatly increase surgical time or cost.

You should not be overly concerned. There have been many recent advances in veterinary surgery. Anesthesia, surgical monitoring, and surgical techniques are very advanced to ensure your pet's safety. In fact, it parallels that routinely used in human surgery.

All pets receive a presurgical physical examination to determine health status.

PRESURGICAL SCREENING is recommended to ensure your pet's safety to diagnose any problems not readily apparent. THESE TESTS vary with the individual case and MAY INCLUDE the following:

• Blood counts to assess blood components.
• Blood Chemistry Profiles to assess organ functions.
• Screening EKG.
• Urinalysis.
• Radiographs.

ANY ABNORMALITIES DIAGNOSED MAY NEED TO BE CORRECTED BEFORE SURGERY IS BEGUN. You may be called prior to surgery if we observe additional risk factors of concern. Some pets are anemic or diabetic which increases the surgical risk, especially if not known. A Blood Chemistry Profile is recommended for all patients, and highly recommended for pets 7 years or older. Your doctor would not think of performing surgery on you without pre-laboratory surgical testing to ensure safety.

ANESTHESIA
We currently use the same anesthesia agents as used in human heart transplant surgery. It may be more expensive for us than other options, BUT we only want the best for your pet, as I'm sure you do also.

SURGICAL TECHNIQUES
All surgery is performed with sterile instruments and gloves, just as in our human counterparts. Separate sterile packs are used for each and every animal. We will not lower our high standards of quality veterinary surgery for any reason. We use only APPROVED SURGICAL MATERIALS (which obviously may increase cost to us).

VITAL SIGN MONITORING
Surgical Vital Sign Monitoring is used routinely to ensure utmost safety of your pet. Our equipment includes both cardiac and respiratory monitoring equipment.

Most surgical cases are kept at home the same day because we know your pet is much better satisfied in the home environment – and therefore heals better.