Surgery

Surgical Procedures

Our surgical suite is fully equipped with the latest in monitoring and life-saving systems for routine and specialty surgeries. At Gulfshore Animal Hospital your pet’s safety and comfort are our top priorities. Inside our state-of-the-art surgical suite, all animals under anesthesia are closely monitored with specialized equipment which includes pulse oximetry measuring oxygenation, ECG, continuous blood pressure monitoring, temperature probes, newly developed equipment to maintain body heat, and most importantly, a surgical nurse evaluating these monitors and your pet during the entire surgery. Using state-of-the-art machines and monitoring devices we can adjust the anesthesia based on heart, breathing, and blood pressure readings to ensure your pet’s safety under our care.

Before surgery, pre-anesthetic blood screening is evaluated to give us a more complete picture of your pet's internal health to allow us to create the safest anesthetic protocol to meet your pet's specific needs. Every surgical patient receives a 12-point preoperative examination to identify potential surgical risks. Each patient has pre-medications tailored to each individual patient to ensure their safety and comfort. Immediately after surgery surgical incisions are treated with a Class 4 K-Laser to promote healing and decrease pain at the incision site. The large majority of our surgical patients do not require bandaging or Elizabethan collars post-operatively. After your pet’s surgery, each patient is recovered individually and placed in our surgical recovery area allowing us to continuously monitor them in a controlled environment.

Laser Surgery

The doctors at Gulfshore Animal Hospital are highly skilled in CO2 laser surgery. By using a laser instead of a traditional cutting scalpel, surgeries can be more precise and less traumatic due to the fact the laser actually seals blood vessels and nerve endings as it cuts resulting in less pain and bleeding.

The laser can be precisely controlled by removing only a thin layer of tissue at a time, leaving the surrounding tissues unaffected, and speeding up some procedures resulting in reducing the time needed for anesthesia. These unique properties make CO2 laser a highly effective and more efficient tool for use in most soft tissue surgeries such as spays, neuters, mass removal, feline declaws, and numerous other procedures. 

At Gulfshore Animal Hospital we want you to feel confident and comfortable entrusting your pet with us for any needed surgical procedures. For your peace of mind, you can always schedule a surgical consultation with one of our veterinarians prior to the procedure. We will be happy to discuss our anesthetic drugs, lasers, equipment, monitoring procedures, and surgical techniques, as well as providing an estimate for you.