Surgery

At Heartland Animal Hospital, we understand just how stressful bringing your pet in for surgery can be. That’s why we work so hard to ensure that each and every surgical experience is as stress-free as possible, both for you and for your pet. Our highly skilled veterinary surgeons perform a broad range of surgical services while always adhering to the highest standards of care. Our well-trained staff are Certified Veterinary Technicians (CVT) who are on hand to monitor our patients to ensure their health, safety, and comfort at all times as well as assist our doctors as needed. We want you to feel confident that when your pet is in our care, he or she is in caring, capable hands.

 

General Surgery

At Heartland, we offer a full range of routine and advanced surgical services. Our state-of-the-art surgical suite is fully equipped with everything needed to keep patients safe and comfortable, including a heated surgery table, advanced anesthesia machines, and monitoring devices. Each procedure has a dedicated anesthesia certified veterinary technician monitoring your pet every step of the way, from pre-operative evaluation to advanced monitoring during surgery to a smooth, comfortable recovery. At Heartland, safety and managing surgical pain are our top priorities. This starts with tailoring your pet’s anesthesia to his/her needs and medical conditions rather than adopting a “one size fits all” approach.

Equally important is pain management. This starts before pain even begins with our pre-operative administration of pain medication. Pain management continues during surgery with the use of the surgical laser and a variety of other pain management techniques (epidural, nerve blocks and continuous rate infusion of pain medication). After surgery, our patients receive a cold laser therapy treatment which reduces pain and inflammation and speeds up healing. We also realize that pain does not begin and end at the hospital door. To that end, each patient is sent home with medication ensuring their continued comfort throughout their recovery.

Orthopedic Surgery

We perform a variety of orthopedic procedures at our pet hospital. We have invested many hours in continuing education and specialized training to become proficient in performing numerous orthopedic surgeries, including fracture repair and patellar luxation correction.  We have specialized orthopedic surgeons that regularly come to our clinic to perform TTA or TPLO knee surgeries.

Laser and Radiowave Surgery

Heartland Animal Hospital is proud to be one of the few veterinary hospitals in the area to offer laser and radiowave surgery as an added level of advanced surgical care. We use our surgical laser and radiowave technology on our surgical patients. The benefits of utilizing these innovative techniques include decreased pain, less swelling, and less bleeding. We will continue to adopt and offer new technologies as they become available to ensure that our patients are always provided with the best available veterinary care.

What You Need to Know Before Surgery

Many people have questions about various aspects of their pet's surgery, and we hope this information will help.  It also explains the decisions you will need to make before your pet's upcoming surgery. As always, we are here to help and welcome any questions you have about your pets and their upcoming procedure.

 

Will my pet have stitches?

For many surgeries, we use absorbable sutures underneath the skin.  These will dissolve on their own, and do not need to be removed later.  Some surgeries, especially tumor removals, do require skin stitches.  With either type of suture, you will need to keep an eye on the incision for swelling or discharge.  Most dogs and cats do not lick excessively or chew at the incision, but this is an occasional problem you will also need to watch for.  If there are skin sutures, these will usually be removed 10 to 14 days after surgery.  You will also need to limit your pet's activity level for a time and no baths are allowed for the first 10 days after surgery.

 

What other decisions do I need to make?

While your pet is under anesthesia, it is the ideal time to perform other minor procedures, such as dentistry, ear cleaning, or implanting an identification microchip.  If you would like an estimate for these extra services, please call ahead of time.  This is especially important if the person dropping the pet off for surgery is not the primary decision maker for the pet's care.

When you bring your pet in for surgery, we will need to 5 to 10 minutes of time to fill out paperwork and make decisions on the blood testing and other options available.  When you pick up your pet after surgery you can also plan to spend about 10 minutes to go over your pet's home care needs.

We will call you the night before your scheduled surgery appointment, to confirm the time you will be dropping your pet off and to answer any questions you might have.  In the meantime, please don't hesitate to call us with any questions about your pet's health or surgery.