Select Page

Veterinary Services

Pet Surgical Procedures in Grafton, WI

Trust our experienced veterinarians for safe, specialized pet surgeries, advanced monitoring, and compassionate care. Your pet’s well-being is our priority.

a group of veterinarian surgeons in a room

Pet Surgical Procedures

There are several genetic disorders that our veterinarians commonly test for before an elective procedure. Pre-anesthetic testing may be different if your pet is at risk for liver or heart disease. We may want to do DNA testing or a buccal bleeding time for dogs with a risk for hemophilia. While your pet is under anesthesia, we can get baseline hip x-rays to look for hip dysplasia or do stomach tacking to prevent GDV (bloat). We will review your options for these breed-specific recommendations when we go over your pet’s surgery estimate with you.

Most pet owners are very concerned about the care their furry family members will receive when surgery or anesthesia is needed. It is understandable to be concerned since there is always risk involved with procedures, even routine ones such as spaying, neutering, and declawing. But you can trust that our veterinary hospital pays careful attention before, during, and after surgery, so your pet has the safest and least stressful experience possible.

Pre-surgery checklists ensure that any extra risks your pet has, such as medication allergies, heart disease, or fearful behavior, are taken into account when we plan your pet’s procedure. We make special accommodations for timid or fear-aggressive pets. We score every procedure for anesthetic risk and pain, so the most appropriate pain and anesthetic medications and monitoring devices are used.

Emergency drug dosage charts are printed for every procedure so we are prepared if something goes wrong. Blood and ECG screening prior to anesthesia ensure we are aware of any possible health problems beforehand.

Pain management is best begun prior to surgery, to preempt pain before it happens. This reduces the amount of pain experienced by the pet both during and after surgery.

Our animal hospital offers a variety of surgical treatments based on your pet’s needs. Laser surgery reduces pain, bleeding, and swelling, and is recommended for many procedures, including spay, neuter, and declaw surgery. Therapy cold laser treatment after surgery also reduces pain and swelling. We use local anesthesia in addition to general anesthesia whenever possible. Even a week after surgery, an incision is more comfortable if a local nerve block was used.

We monitor patients closely under anesthesia, including heart and respiratory rate, heart rhythm, blood pressure, blood oxygen level, and temperature. We keep monitoring after the patient is in recovery until we are sure that the blood pressure, temperature, and other vital signs are normal and stable. We keep patients warm and comfortable after surgery, too.

Our veterinarians are experienced and careful surgeons. Even so, some surgeries should be done by a board-certified surgery specialist. We can provide this level of care with a mobile surgeon who performs advanced orthopedic surgeries for us here at Best Friends, or via referral to the surgeons at Lakeshore Veterinary Specialists.

Risk & Benefits

Related Veterinary Services