Surgical procedures

Our highly skilled veterinarians can perform a variety of surgical procedures for your pet, from routine spays and neuters to more complex emergency, soft tissue and orthopedic surgeries.

While our general practitioners provide for your pets' routine surgical needs (spays, neuters, declaws, growth removals etc.), our surgery department is able to offer advanced state-of-the-art procedures in soft tissue and orthopedics.

Laser Surgery

Laser surgery minimizes bleeding, reduces pain and swelling and promotes more rapid healing. When your pet undergoes laser surgery, he or she will recover more quickly and face less post-operative pain. Laser surgery also is more precise and greatly reduces the risk of infection. Danville Veterinary Hospital is one of the few hospitals in the region that have this capability. Laser surgery allows us to do complex surgeries that otherwise might have to be referred to specialists.

Orthopedic Surgeries

TPLO Procedures: Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteomy (TPLO) surgery is aimed at changing the biomechanics of the stifle (knee). The normally sloped tibial plateau of the dog is rotated to become flat. This eliminates the tendency for the tibia (shinbone) to thrust forward during weight bearing, which in turn keeps the menisci (cartilages) from being torn and crushed. TPLO surgery has improved success at avoiding long-term development of arthritis and leads to better resumption of normal activities than typically is seen with other surgeries for cranial cruciate ligament rupture.

To learn more about your pet's TPLO procedure, click here.

Bone Plating: Broken bones are a common occurrence among pets, but treating a broken limb in a dog or cat is vastly different from treating a broken limb in a human. Placing and maintaining casts on a dog or cat is very difficult and presents many challenges to both veterinarians and pet owners. To better heal a broken bone, your veterinarian may recommend bone plating surgery. This involves the application of various metal surgical implants, such as pins, wires, plates and screws, to the broken limb. This procedure will help restore broken bones and fix them in place while healing occurs.

Limb and Tail Amputation: Traumatic injuries to a pet's tail or limb may necessitate the removal of that appendage. Injuries from automobiles, infections, cancer and other diseases are all conditions that could lead to a pet's limb being amputated. Amputation is done either to save a pet's life or to ease pain brought on by disease or injury. Amputation procedures are a difficult decision for pet owners and our veterinarians will talk to clients about how your pet will cope with amputation. Limb and tail amputations are a serious, but not complicated, procedure.

Soft Tissue Surgeries

• Gastric Torsion: Gastric torsion is an acute, life-threatening condition that involves the twisting of the stomach as it rotates on its axis. When gastric torsion occurs, gas and liquid cannot escape from the stomach, preventing blood from returning to the heart.
• Foreign Body Removal: When your pet swallows a piece of string or another foreign body, dangerous health conditions may occur. If your pet swallows a foreign object, immediate medical attention is required. Our veterinarians can use radiographs and ultrasounds in order to better identify the location of and remove the object.
• Lateral ear canal resection: The shape of your dog or cat's ear canal may make it more prone to ear infections. A lateral ear canal resection creates an ear opening that is more easily cleaned and ventilated and less susceptible to bacteria.
• Splenectomy: The spleen cleanses the blood supply in both humans and pets. The removal of the spleen, a splenectomy, occurs when a tumor or a twisting of the organ occurs and harms the spleen.
• Treatment of oral tumors: When treated early, tumors of the mouth can be safely removed. More complex, aggressive procedures may be used in the treatment of malignant tumors.
• Nephrectomy: Cancer, severe injuries or damage caused by kidney stones could result in the removal of one of a pet's kidneys.
• Anal sacculectomy: An advanced surgical procedure that removes the anal sacs in dogs or cats. Animals with recurring anal sac impaction, abscesses and neoplasia may benefit from this procedure.

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