Our vets are trained to carry out many major surgical procedures. Our vets in theatre are supported by trained nursing staff. We have an operating theatre suite including anaesthetic machines, vital signs monitoring and surgical lighting.
We carry out major operations regularly, our vets work within their experience and competence and patient safety is our first priority. No operation is without risk and there can be complications that arise during surgery. We do our best to keep you, as our client, fully informed of the risks of any surgical procedures we offer and fully support you in your choice of whether to go ahead with an operation. To this end it is a requirement that owners, where possible, read and sign a consent form indicating that they understand the risks for all surgical procedures. The only time we consider operating without consent is when it is a life and death emergency and we have been unable to locate and contact the owner.
Sometimes our patients have trauma or illness that need specialist surgical treatment. If this is the case we work with our specialist referral partners to ensure that your pet gets the best possible care. Complex surgery, for example heart surgery or complicated orthopaedic surgery has a better chance of being successful if carried out by someone who does those kind of procedures on a daily basis – this is why we may refer you to another surgeon.
Surgical operations can take up a lot of time and resource involving several staff and consequently can seem costly – until you consider what the equivalent operation on a human might cost. Indeed vets operate on a variety of different animals most of which have smaller organs and blood vessels than humans. Our veterinary surgeons will give you a detailed estimate of costs that may be involved in a surgery they suggest and will point out to you alternative treatments if they are available.
Treatment options are much wider now than in the past and the complexity of some gold standard treatment means that we suggest that owners take out insurance against illness and accident. Of course if you are well insured this means that you can concentrate on getting the best treatment for your pet. As part of our Right Start in Life package we offer a voucher for 4 weeks free insurance to help highlight our advice that insuring your pet is the right thing to do.