Pet Surgery
Surgical Referral Center of the North
Our fully equipped modern and sterile surgical suite includes the safest gas anesthesia and most advanced patient monitoring equipment, allowing our doctors to provide many orthopedic and soft tissue surgical services. Besides the monitoring equipment a trained veterinary technician also monitors your pet during surgery and recovery. A phone call immediately after surgery allows for your "peace of mind." When its time for your pet to go home, we will provide you with detailed written instructions for home care and a chance to meet with a staff member to review your pet′s condition and care tips to promote speedy recovery. If you have concerns once your pet goes home, the doctors and staff are always available to answer questions. We care for your pet the way we would want our own pets cared for…with lots of love and attention.
Dr. Thorsgard has a strong love and interest for putting the pieces back together or in more technical terms, orthopedic surgery. Because of his strong interest in this field our clinic has become a surgical referral center used by many area veterinarians. Dr. Thorsgard does many complex and demanding surgeries such as: TPLO-tibial plateau leveling osteotomy or the extra capsular repair of the anterior cruciate ligament, TPO-triple pelvic osteotomy, OCD-canine osteochondritis dessicans, sidebar fixations, and interlocking nail procedures. He is also certified to do PennHIP, a procedure to test your dog's susceptibility to hip dysplasia.
Surgical Procedure
It is important that surgery be done on an empty stomach to reduce the risk of vomiting under and after anesthesia. You will need to withold food for at least 8 hours before surgery. Water can be left down for the pet until the morning of surgery.
We will call you the day before your scheduled surgery appointment, to confirm the time you will be dropping your pet off and to answer any questions you might have.
Please drop your pet off between 7:30-8:30am the morning of the surgery.
When you bring your pet in for surgery, we will need 5-10 minutes of time to fill out paperwork and make decisions on the pre-anesthetic blood testing, pain injection, vaccinations and other available options. We are open in the morning at 7:30am for early morning drop-offs, or if it is more convenient, you may drop off your pet the night before its scheduled surgery at no additional charge.We require that all pets are current on their vaccinations, if your pet was vaccinated at another veterinary clinic please bring in those records or if your pet is not current on vaccinations we are happy to update them at the time of surgery. |
|---|
If your pet is scheduled for surgery for a procedure that requires anesthesia. We would like to take this opportunity to explain why pre-anesthetic blood testing is important to the health of your pet.Pre-surgical testing is recommended to insure your pet's safety by diagnosing any problems not readily apparent. Blood screening for disease is a routine procedure in human medicine and also in veterinary medicine. Chemical analysis of a small blood sample gives us the complete evaluation of the overall body condition along with the physical examination.We want to do everything possible to minimize possible complications that can arise during surgery that, although not apparent from a physical examination, will show up when the blood is examined and screened for problems. Kidney disease, liver disease, anemia, low resistance to disease, and clotting disorders are examples that can be detected greatly increasing safety for your pet.It is important to understand that pre-anesthetic blood profile does not guarantee the absence of complications. It may, however, greatly reduce the risk of complications as well as identify medical conditions that could require medical treatment in the future. |
|---|
After surgery has been completed you will receive a call from either the veterinarian or our certified technician that assisted in the surgery of your pet. Our clinic schedules to do surgeries in the mornings, but there is often run over into the afternoon because of urgent or emergency situations that arise in all health care professions. So don't be alarmed if you haven't been called in the a.m., and don't hesitate to call our clinic if you are concerned, we'll give you an update on your pet anytime.When we call, we also want to set up a discharge appointment to review all the post surgical instructions and have you meet with the veterinarians to answer any questions you may have about your pet..When you pick your pet up from surgery plan to spend about 10 minutes to go over your pet's home care needs. |
|---|