The entire staff at Westwood Veterinary Hospital understands that the decision to allow your precious pet to undergo surgery is never an easy one. We strive to ensure that your pet’s procedure is as comfortable and stress-free as possible.
Perhaps the most important pre-surgical step is to discuss why we believe a particular procedure is necessary and what it entails. We will provide you with information on proper postoperative care and answer any questions you may have so that you feel comfortable knowing you are making the right choice for your pet.
We regularly perform many types of elective veterinary surgeries, including but not limited to:
- Spays and neuters
- Bladder surgery
- Tumor removal
- Gastrointestinal surgery
- Orthopedic surgery
- Cancer surgery
- Skin surgery
We perform tumor or tissue mass excisions, gastrointestinal foreign body removal, bladder stone removal, exploratory, liver or intestinal biopsy, anal sac removal and wound management.
Dr. Aldridge performs minor bone fracture repair such as intramedullary pin and wire placement. We make referrals to other Specialists for complicated fracture repair or inter-vertebral disk disease (of the back).
Anesthesia
Ensuring the health and safety of your pet during surgery is our utmost concern and requires an anesthetic and monitoring regimen that adheres to the highest principles and ideals of quality care.
We provide your pet with state-of-the-art anesthetic administration that is monitored by our skilled veterinary technicians. Prior to surgery, your pet is examined by a veterinarian and a pre-surgical blood screen may be performed. The results of these tests and your pet’s past anesthetic history, breed, preexisting conditions, and age are used to create an individualized anesthesia protocol for your pet.
While under anesthesia your pet is cared for by one of our well-trained and experienced veterinary technicians using our monitoring system which tracks blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature, and oxygen level.
We also have a heated surgery table to help keep your pet’s body temperature normal during surgery. We use the utmost care while performing surgery and treat our surgical patients as if they were our own pets.
Pain Management
We all know that pain hurts, but pain also has many other detrimental effects on your pet’s body. Pain slows healing, decreases activity, causes behavioral changes (aggression, anxiety, and depression). Pain worsens diseases like arthritis and potentially some cancers. It interferes with the bond between you and your pet.
At Westwood Veterinary Hospital, we use pre-surgical injection pain medications and dispense post-surgical pain medication to owners for their recovering pet.
We use pain management in patients with painful conditions such as pancreatitis, urinary tract disease, arthritis, and for injured pets. For acute and chronic conditions, we use all our available and safe resources, including NSAIDS (non-steroidal medications), oral and injectable analgesics, for the complete comfort of your pet.