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Surgery

Some helpful information

Operations

We perform a wide range of operations on site, ranging from simple neutering to far more complex soft tissue surgery and orthopaedics. In most cases, these elective surgeries take place in the mornings and your pet is sent home in the afternoon, following a suitable recovery period.

On leaving your pet, you will be asked to sign a declaration that you understand what we are about to do to your pet after this has been explained to you, including the estimated costs. More complex operations, or where the clinical picture is changing rapidly may require that you have an actual appointment time with the vet that morning to reassess the situation and prepare for surgery. You will be asked about this on booking the operation.

Pre-Operative Advice

Please bring your pet in to us between 9 and 10am on the morning of the procedure, unless the vet/nurse has arranged a specific appointment for you. This allows us to give your pet a pre-operative check & pre-med, this period also giving your pet time to calm down in the new environment.

Feeding

You can feed your pet their normal supper the night before the procedure, just take away all access to food after 10pm. You can leave enough water down to get him/her through the night, just take it away first thing on the morning of the procedure. It is very important that if your pet manages to steal some food during the 'starved' period, that you inform the vet or nurse when you bring your pet to the surgery. We may delay surgery until later in the day.

Bathing

Please ensure that your pet is reasonably clean when presented for a routine operation. Animals presented with dirty skin conditions may be sent home and owners asked to bath their pet. We don't need them spotless but excessively dirty pets presented for operations can have increased risk of post-operative infections, and can compromise practice hygiene standards.

Pre-Operative Blood Sample

We would always advise that older pets have a pre-anaesthetic blood test as this may uncover previously undiagnosed problems. These may be serious or may at least require resolving before an anaesthetic is undertaken. We would generally advise these tests for cats over 12 years old and dogs over 10, but we can test any pet to be sure should you wish. The blood test is performed 'in house' so we can do this on the morning of the operation before we give any pre-meds. The charge for this test is £101.00 (including vat). If you wish to have this test done, or have any questions, please don't hesitate to speak to the vets/nurses, who will be more than happy to help you.

Post-Operative Advice

We will telephone you to either arrange a post-op appointment with the vet to discuss the surgery or organise a time for you to collect your pet from a nurse. Don't be alarmed if when you phone we ask you to phone back a little later. Some pets take longer to 'come round' from the anaesthetic and in some cases, a busy day’s schedule and emergencies may push the schedule back, delaying surgery. Some pets will wake up early and if they are distressed, we will endeavour to get these home earlier so please check your phone numbers are all correct on the day of the operation. In general, we would rather your pet recuperate fully from the procedure before we discharge them.

Estimates and Quotes

For neutering and certain other fixed cost operations, we can quote an all in fixed price which will not alter no matter what we encounter. Other operations are done on an estimated basis and by this we mean we will give you an estimate of our best guess if all goes to plan. However, every operation on every animal is different and thus this will change a little from case to case. If we discover something that we were not expecting before the operation that will increase the price over the quotation by more than 10% then we will always stop and ring you before we proceed further. For this and many other reasons, please make sure your contact numbers are correct.

Post-Operative Complications

In some rare cases where there is post-operative wound issues, such as infection or swelling, these are not covered by estimates or quotes. In these cases, we will not charge any further fees for our time but please be aware that we do charge for any necessary medications or dressings involved in resolving the problems.

You will be given a care sheet at discharge, outlining what after-care is needed.