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 Laser Surgery:
Dr. McKee has decided to make laser surgery part of her
standard of care. Laser surgery offers less pain, less
blood loss, less swelling and faster healing times for
your pet. Ask a staff member today about laser surgery
for your pet.
Any place where we used to use a scalpel to cut tissue,
we use a laser. When you use a scalpel to cut what
you’re actually doing at the cellular level is crushing
cells. This causes a chemical reaction that creates pain
and swelling at the location of the cut. When you use a
laser to cut what you’re actually doing is vaporizing
cells. This avoids the chemical reaction that creates
pain and swelling. A laser also seals nerve endings as
it moves through tissue. This also reduces the pain that
your pet feels. As an added bonus the laser also seals
off small blood vessels which reduces the amount of
blood that your pet loses during surgery.
What does this mean for
your pet?
There should be a lot less
swelling and pain after the surgery. Your pet is more
comfortable and therefore happier. When we were doing
abdominal surgeries (such as a spay) with a scalpel the
animals used to be in a great deal of discomfort
afterwards, and they were stiff and sore for several
days. Now, with the laser, animals go home and are
willing to jump and run and play as soon as the
anesthesia wears off, and they don’t even seem to really
notice that they’ve had surgery at all. We now send
spays and neuters home the same day as the surgery (we
used to keep them overnight) which is better for the pet
and the owner!
The most remarkable
difference we have seen is with cat declaws. (Declawing
a cat is a radical surgery that should only be done
after careful consultation with the doctor and
consideration of the cat’s current and possible future
lifestyles.) Cat declaws, even done carefully, caused a
great deal of discomfort for the cat and required
significant pain medication. Now we use the laser to
excise the claws, and medical tissue adhesive (glue) to
close the incision, and the cats go home much more
comfortable, and with a lot less pain medication than
they used to.
Laser surgery is an
important advancement in the standard of care for
veterinary medicine, and we are pleased to offer this
advanced medical procedure at VetCare Montana! To learn
more about laser surgery, check out the following links:
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