General Surgery

Surgery involves the treatment of disease, injury or deformity by operation or tissue manipulation. All surgery involves some form of anesthesia and pain management for each patient. Your Oakland Animal Hospital surgery team utilizes many of the same safety measures as human hospitals. This includes pre-surgery blood work to make sure your pet is healthy enough for surgery. The majority of our pre-surgical blood work is handled in our in-house laboratory. Pre-surgical abnormalities will be address, drug selections may be modified and sometime surgeries are postponed or even canceled until the surgical team feels the surgery is safe to perform. In addition to the pre-surgical blood work our team will monitor the patient closely by various methods including: Blood Pressure Machine, EKG, Oxygen/Carbon Dioxide levels, and constant human evaluation of the patient by a Licensed Veterinary Technician. Talk to your veterinarian about the method of anesthesia being used for your pet’s surgical procedure.

Pain management for pets have come a long way and continues to grow as we learn more. Pain management for all surgical procedures is tailored to each patient based on anticipated pre-surgical need and post-surgical needs as well. Pain control varies from pre-operative medications to block pain before the procedure, intra-operative IV medications, to post-operative IV constant infusions for 24-hour pain control. Your pet may also go home with oral pain medications to ensure they are just as comfortable at home. Discuss your pet’s pain control needs with your veterinarian.

We offer many surgeries to maintain your pets well being, below is a list of the most common. If you have questions on a procedure your pet needs please contact our office and one of our Licensed Veterinary Technicians can help answer your questions:

Spay (Ovariohysterectomy) – This surgical procedure involves removing the ovaries and uterus to prevent your female pet from going into heat and being able to reproduce. A ovariohysterectomy is a major surgical procedure which involves general anesthesia and proper pain management for our patients. There are many health benefits to spaying your pet, including: reduces the possibility of uterine or ovarian cancer, greatly reduces the incidence of mammary cancer, prevention of unwanted pregnancy or heat cycles, and elimination of risk for pyometra (severe uterine infection)..

Neuter (Castration) – This surgical procedure involves removing the testicles so the mail will not be able to reproduce. Neutering requires general anesthesia but is not as invasive as spaying a female pet. Neutering your pet eliminates testicular cancer and decreases the incidence of prostate disease.

Please contact our office to discuss with our staff when it’s best to perform either of these procedures. Our staff will determine the best age for your pet to be neutered based on age, breed and physical condition.

Declawing – Declawing involves surgical removal of the nail and last bone in each toe. Oakland Animal Hospital utilized laser surgical methods for declaws, this type of procedure is better for the patients healing and pain control. Declawing involves a general anesthesia. Pre-operative and post-operative pain control is a priority for this procedure. Patients will stay in the hospital for two-three days to ensure that they are pain-free and healing well.

Dewclaw Removal – Some dogs are born with extra toes on the rear feet. Your veterinarian may recommend removal of them so they do not get caught on objects or become infected from abnormal nail growth. General anesthesia is used with this procedure as well and pain management.

Soft Tissue Surgery – This involves surgical procedures that do not include bones and joints. Soft tissue surgery includes but not limited to: abdominal surgery, heart/lung/vessel surgery, skin/wound reconstruction, growth removals, and eye/facial surgery. Your veterinarian will select the best anesthesia and pain management necessary for your pet in these surgical procedures.

Oakland Animal Hospital does a wide range of surgeries if you have a question on a specific procedure please contact our office and we can discuss all the options you have available to you.