Progressive Approach, Every Time

Any form of soft tissue surgery requires a lot of care for your pet before, during, and after the actual procedure to ensure the very best outcomes.  Staying true to our modern, family-style medical approach, we do the following process on each and every patient to safeguard your precious pet during their surgical stay.

Pre-Anesthesia

• Age-appropriate blood work ensures no organ or immune disease that could complicate an anesthesic procedure
• Intravenous catheter and fluids maintain blood pressure and gives instant access for administering surgical drugs if needed
• Customized dosing to each procedure based on species, size, pre-anesthetic findings reduce many risk factors found in "no-frills" or one-size-fits-all protocols

Intra-operative 

• Thermal support to maintain your pet's body heat include warm water recirculating blankets, IV fluid warming, and direct contact heat bags
• Continuous EKG, oxygen saturation, temperature monitoring
• CO2 laser surgery reduces bleeding risks, painful nerve endings, swelling, and surgical time.
• And our best asset: a dedicated technician that follows your pet from surgical induction to extubation!  No unattended recoveries!

Post-Operative

• Supervised recovery the entire day - all recoveries directly in our high vigilance area for minimum 3 hours post operative
• Multimodal pain support because we pledge to treat pain even when they try to hide it

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Spay / Neuter 

Spaying and neutering is necessary for nearly every pet, although the timing of your pets may be different than you think!  Every breed, and even an individual pet within a certain breed, requires special attention to the pros and cons of surgical alteration at certain times of their lives.  The end result though is to ensure your pet has the longest and healthiest version of life possible.  So why exactly DO we spay/neuter?

Ovariohysterectomy / OHE / Spay

Removes the ovaries, oviducts, and majority of the uterus down to the level of, but not including the cervix

What if it's done too late?

• Mammary cancer - up to 35% risk after just 3 or more heat cycles.  Dogs have up to 50% of their tumors turn cancerous and cats can be up to 80% malignant once they form!
• Pyometra - severe life threatening infection that often occurs in older (>5yo) intact females after a heat cycle but can happen at any age
• MUCH bigger surgery, more expensive, and more recovery time for your pet

What if it's done too early?

• Very often, nothing at all...
• However we take extra precautions in a handful of large and giant breed dogs, golden retrievers, shepherds, and a few others where we strategically reduce an increase in hip and knee problems, and a small percentage of skin or lymph cancers.  
• Some individuals need a single heat to improve their genitourinary anatomy or immune status

We have customized conversations about the pros and cons of each approach for YOUR pet and help establish then act on the greater risk.  In the end, we all want the longest life with the least illness we can provide!