Veterinary surgery
Advanced surgical procedures such as joint replacement (total hip, knee and elbow replacement), fracture repair, stabilization of cranial cruciate ligament deficiency, oncologic (cancer) surgery, herniated disc treatment, complicated gastrointestinal or urogenital procedures, kidney transplant, skin grafts, complicated wound management, and minimally invasive procedures (arthroscopy, laparoscopy, thoracoscopy) are performed by veterinary surgeons (as registered in their jurisdiction).
Once the minimum requirements of training are met, residents are required to pass a rigorous certification examination before being admitted as members (diplomates) of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons[3] or European College of Veterinary Surgeons.
Animals are often premedicated intravenously or intramuscularly with a sedative, analgesic, and anticholinergic agent (dogs frequently receive buprenorphine and acepromazine).
The most common gas anesthetics in use in veterinary medicine are isoflurane, enflurane, and halothane, although desflurane and sevoflurane are becoming more popular due to rapid induction and recovery.
To spay (medical term: ovariectomy or ovario-hysterectomy) is to completely remove the ovaries and often the uterus of a female animal.
With an ovariohysterectomy, the ligaments of the uterus and ovaries are broken down and the blood vessels are ligated and both organs are removed.
Other common elective surgical procedures in the United States are declawing in cats (onychectomy), ear-cropping in dogs, tail docking in dogs, horses, and dairy cattle, and livestock dehorning in cattle, sheep, and goats.
These procedures have been controversial and recently debated among breeders, veterinary organizations, and animal welfare scientists.
Certain dog breeds such as Bulldogs often need to have this surgery because of the size of the puppy's head relative to the width of the bitch's birth canal.
Gastric dilatation volvulus (bloat) is a common condition in dogs in which the stomach fills with gas, and can become torsed.
This requires immediate surgical intervention to prevent necrosis of the stomach wall and death of the dog.
A gastropexy may be performed, whereby the stomach is attached to the body wall to prevent this condition from recurring.
Small puncture wounds may be left open, bandaged, and allowed to heal without surgery.
A third alternative is delayed primary closure, which involves bandaging and reevaluation and surgery in three to five days.
The stomach (gastrotomy) or intestine (enterotomy) can be surgically opened to remove the foreign body.
[19] However, endoscopic foreign body retrieval is anatomically limited to objects lodged in the esophagus, the stomach or the colon.
