Bone Treatment and Surgery (Orthopaedics)

Quality care and rapid response time often mean the difference between life and death for the sick or injured animal.

Our vets at The Ark Animal Hospital are highly skilled in performing both routine and specialized surgeries, using only the most modern veterinary surgical techniques, and our vet nurse team is always on hand to ensure that your pet remains safe and comfortable throughout the procedure.

Some of the surgeries we perform include:

• Spey and neuter
• Wound repair such as stich-ups
• Gastrointestinal surgery, including foreign body removal and organ repair
• Tumour biopsy and removal
• Abscess drainage and repair
• Aural haematoma repair
• Eyelid surgery
• Orthopaedic procedures such as fracture repair and femoral head excision
• Toe and limb amputation

Before surgery

All surgical patients receive a pre-surgical exam and, depending on their age, health status and recent treatment history, may also receive pre-operative lab work, x-rays, and intravenous fluids to ensure that they are healthy enough to undergo surgery.

During surgery

We use balanced anesthesia—the intelligent combination of sedation, analgesia (pain control), induction (usually by IV injection), maintenance anaesthesia (usually with isoflurane gas), and patient monitoring (pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitor). Our qualified veterinary nurses are with your pet all the way, and have a progressive surgical suite, which includes personalized anaesthetic protocols to ensure their safety.
Patients are carefully monitored by our staff, before, during and following every surgery for optimum safety and comfort.

After surgery

Depending on the type of operation your pet receives, recovery from surgery may take a little time, and we recommend you wait until at least 2 hours after the surgery is finished before taking them home.

When they get home they will still be a bit tired, will have trouble
controlling their body temperature, and may not want to eat for a few hours. We recommend you keep them in an area with a comfortable temperature, offer them a half size meal, and if they eat it all and are still hungry after 30 minutes then you can give them the rest.

They should be back to normal by the following morning.
Occasionally after surgery your pet may develop a mild cough. This is caused by irritation from having the breathing tube in the trachea. It should not last longer than 1-2 days, and cause no significant discomfort to your pet.

We will work with you to develop an appropriate pain management plan that will help your pet recover as quickly and comfortably as possible. Our goal is to have your animal companion back to feeling happy and healthy.

After your pet goes home, we will call you to check on their progress. If there are problems or questions, no matter how small, please feel free to contact us.

You can be sure that everyone at The Ark Animal Hospital will be very
receptive, taking the extra steps necessary to make sure that your pet does well.