Pet surgery

Whether it is a spay to book or a mass that has just been found, the first step is a consult and a written estimate before anything is scheduled.

The procedures performed here

Dental procedures. The most common surgery performed here is a dental cleaning under anesthesia, including extractions where they are needed.

Spay and neuter. Removing the reproductive organs lowers the risk of certain cancers and tumors and removes some unwanted behaviors.

Mass removal. A lump or growth found under the skin comes off, and it can be sent for biopsy. Two lumps can look and feel identical and mean entirely different things.

Other soft-tissue surgery. Bladder stone removal, wound repair and laceration repair are performed here as well.

Orthopedic surgery is referred. Broken bones are not repaired here. Fracture repair goes to a surgical specialist, and we will tell you where to take your pet.

Before, during and after

Before. Bloodwork on every patient, every time, at every age: a complete blood count and a chemistry panel, run within the month before the procedure.

Drop-off is 7:30 to 8 AM, and no food after 10 PM the night before. The pre-surgical IV catheter is placed slowly and calmly.

The consent form. Complete and sign it online before the day, or sign it here at drop-off. Online takes about five minutes.

During the day. Someone is assigned to your pet and to nothing else. The surgeon operates, and a second person watches your pet until they are fully recovered.

What they are watching: pulse oximetry, ECG, blood pressure, capnography and temperature, through the procedure and into recovery.

After the procedure. Your pet recovers in the treatment area, which we keep as quiet as we can, and goes home the same day. Most are recognizably themselves again by the following day, and fully healed in about two weeks. You will leave with written aftercare instructions and pain medication.

Anything that needed stitches gets a suture check 12 to 14 days later. Beyond that there is no routine recheck. If a particular procedure calls for one, it is scheduled before you leave.

Older pets and anesthesia

Age on its own is not what makes an anesthetic risky. The conditions that arrive with age are the risk: kidney disease, a heart murmur, a liver that no longer clears drugs the way it did. Those are findable, and that is what the bloodwork before the procedure is for.

If the bloodwork or the examination turns up something that changes the picture, you are told before anything is scheduled.

What surgery costs

Spay and neuter are priced by weight, $850 to $1,100. Anesthetic drugs and surgical time both scale with size. The upper end includes a microchip at $72, placed while your pet is already asleep.

Other soft-tissue surgery, including mass removals, is not published as a figure. What is involved depends on where the mass is, how large it is and what the biopsy requires. You are given a written estimate before anything is scheduled, and called before that estimate changes.

All published prices