Soft Tissue Surgery

When your pet needs a consultation with a surgical specialist you can rely on our ACVS Board-Certified Surgeons to give your pet a thorough evaluation and provide you with the information you need about diagnostic testing, treatments, and prognosis. Our surgeons are experts with regards to when surgery is necessary and, just as importantly, when surgery may not be the best choice for your pet. If surgery is the best option, rest assured your pet is in capable hands. Our doctors and technical staff are here to help guide you and your pet through the process. When possible and indicated, we employ minimally invasive techniques such as arthroscopy, endoscopy, and laparoscopy to reduce postoperative discomfort and speed recovery. Our hospital-wide dedication to the most progressive pain management techniques ensures your pet a comfortable recovery.

Soft Tissue Surgery
“Soft Tissue” refers to surgery involving structures outside of the skeleton. Each year close to 400 patients undergo surgery at our hospital for many different problems involving the soft tissues. In addition to having a board-certified veterinary surgeon perform the procedure; patients of our hospital benefit from the availability of specialized medications, diagnostic and monitoring equipment, and a staff dedicated to top-notch pain management. We believe our 24 hour technician staff provides care essential for the safety of our patients recovering from surgery and who need careful monitoring and pain management.

The most common soft tissue procedures performed at our hospital are tumor biopsy or removal, gastrointestinal surgery, urinary tract surgery, wound repair, respiratory surgery, and medically indicated ear surgery. In this modern era of veterinary medicine, tools such as ultrasound allow us to detect problems like abdominal tumors at a much earlier stage than in the past. Early removal of such tumors by a skilled surgeon can greatly improve the prognosis of many patients.

Your doctor will give you the benefits and drawbacks of any endoscopic procedures recommended. All of the above procedures require general anesthesia.

Anesthesia
Our doctors perform about 1500 anesthetic procedures each year. This experience, along with an excellent technical staff and the state-of-the-art anesthetic monitoring equipment available at our hospital, minimize the risk associated with anesthetic and surgical procedures. While the risks of anesthesia cannot be eliminated, we do our best to keep you informed of the level of risk as well as to be proactive in detecting and treating problems that may add to this risk. We have a wide array of anesthetic medications available and tailor our anesthetic protocol to each patient’s needs.