Veterinary Services
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Medical Treatment and Hospitalization

Whether your pet needs to be monitored for observation or needs more intensive care, we provide the highest quality medical care with state of the art monitoring equipment.  If overnight care is necessary, we will assist you in coordinating transfer to an overnight care facility.

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Surgical Services

Elective surgeries such as spays and neuters receive the same high quality care and careful anesthetic monitoring as exploratory surgeries and complicated mass removals.

• Spaying and Neutering
• Other Surgical Procedures

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Spaying and Neutering

While helping the pet overpopulation crisis is certainly a major reason to spay or neuter, these procedures also help cats and dogs live longer, healthier, happier lives.

What is spaying and neutering?
Spaying is the surgical removal of the reproductive organs (the uterus and ovaries), and neutering is the surgical removal of the testicles. Both procedures result in permanent sterilization, or inability of the animal to reproduce. These procedures require general anesthesia, and are typically performed at approximately 5-6 months of age. (Animals in heat and pregnant animals can be spayed, although the risk of complication is a little higher. We prefer to perform the surgery before the heat cycle begins, or about three weeks after the heat cycle ends.)

At Gladstone, we take special care to make sure our spay and neuter surgeries are performed safely and pain-free. We’ll talk with you about the importance of running recommend pre-anesthetic bloodwork to detect any underlying problems, such as kidney and liver problems, which could cause problems with anesthesia. We’ll also recommend setting an IV catheter so we can give IV fluids which help maintain your pet’s blood pressure and lead to a quick recovery. Careful monitoring and care are taken during surgery to minimize any complications. Our trained technicians measure blood pressure and oxygenation throughout the procedure. Pain control is an important part of our treatment plan, and is started pre-operatively to help your pet stay as comfortable as possible. Pain levels are assessed throughout the procedure and recovery to ensure that we have adequate pain control on-board, and pain medications are sent home to help with discomfort and inflammation post-operatively.

Spaying/neutering is good for your pet…
Sterilization eliminates sexual frustration and risk of problems associated with pregnancy and birth.

Females—Spaying also greatly reduces the risk of breast cancer and eliminates the possibility of uterine and ovarian cancer. Spaying a female before her first heat and not after one litter further reduces these health risks. Mammary cancer, the third most common form of cancer in cats, occurs 166 times more frequently in intact cats than in sterilized cats.

Spaying female cats and dogs also eliminates the risk of pyometra, a serious medical condition where the uterus becomes infected and pus-filled, causing life-threatening toxic effects. Pyometra may occur a week to 2 months after a heat cycle, and typically requires intensive (and expensive) medical care and emergency surgery.

Spaying also eliminates the mood swings and undesirable behavior that female cats and dogs display during their heat cycle, such as messy spotting, pacing, crying and trying to escape.

Males—Neutering eliminates the chance of testicular cancer and decreases the risk of prostate enlargement and prostatitis by 80% or more. Prostatitis is a bacterial infection of the prostate gland, which can have very serious consequences and require extensive and expensive treatment.

Neutering also will make your pet more affectionate and less likely to roam, get in fights, or become lost. Nationally, 80% of the dogs hit by cars are intact males searching for mates. Neutered cats are less likely to contract deadly diseases such as feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), which are transmitted through bite wounds. Neutered male cats are also less likely to suffer cat bite abscesses from fighting. Finally neutered male cats are much less likely to develop mammary cancer, or “stud tail," caused by overactive glands in the tail.

Spaying/neutering your pet is good for you…
Spaying and neutering greatly increases the life span of your pet, and owners of sterilized pets have lower vet bills. It also makes pets more affectionate companions and less aggressive, in general. Spaying and neutering can also reduce or eliminate unpleasant behaviors such as wailing, messy heat cycles, and humping. Finally, sterilized pets have lower licensing fees.

Spaying and neutering helps the pet overpopulation problem…
The uncontrolled breeding of dogs and cats has produced more animals than there are loving homes. It’s a sad fact that of the estimated 10 million animals brought to shelters each year, about half will not find new homes and families.

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Other Surgical Procedures

In addition to spays and neuters, we also perform general surgeries and most advanced or emergency surgeries on a variety of species. These include mass removals, laceration repairs, some eye surgeries, orthopedic procedures, exploratory surgeries, c-sections, and bladder stone removal, among other procedures. We do not routinely recommend declaw surgery (surgical amputation of the first digit of every toe on both of the cat’s front feet), but this surgery may be done in some circumstances following consultation with a doctor. (link to declawing alternatives below in behavior section) We provide careful anesthetic monitoring and pain control during all surgical procedures. Specialty surgeries are referred to one of several board-certified surgeons in the area.

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