Veterinary Surgery

Melbourne’s Veterinary Surgery Specialists

Our goal at the MVSC Surgery Department is to provide the highest standard of care for surgical Patients. Importantly, we interact with Specialists in other disciplines to provide a comprehensive specialist involvement in Patient care.

Surgery department at Melbourne Veterinary Specialists

We offer a personalised service where communication with the Surgeon is available from the initial consultation, immediately after the surgery, during the recovery period, and at the discharge appointment. We do not simply perform the surgery and move on. We provide consistent follow up until the surgical problem is resolved.

All surgical procedures are communicated to the referring Veterinarian via a telephone call, an emailed/faxed report, and a mailed report. All the Nurses in the Surgery Department are well trained, caring, and compassionate and will make your pet’s stay at the Centre as comfortable as possible for both you and your pet.

During the initial consultation your pet will be examined by one of our Specialist Surgeons and the relevant history, laboratory work, and X-rays from your referring veterinarian will be assessed. If further investigations are required, these can be mostly performed at the time of the initial appointment.

One of the Surgeons will then discuss your pet’s problem and a surgical treatment plan will be formulated. The risks, possible complications, success rates, and costs of the surgical procedures will then be discussed to ensure you are able to make a well informed decision regarding your pet’s care.

Our Specialist Surgeons are on call for emergency surgeries should the need arise with your pet.

Our Goals and Values

At the MVSC Surgery Department, we aim to:

  • To provide state-of-the art surgical care for all Patients.
  • To provide excellent communication with pet owners and referring Veterinarians.
  • To support the Veterinarians in Melbourne, regional Victoria, and interstate.
  • To provide excellence in all areas of surgery, including soft tissue surgery, orthopaedics, surgical oncology, neurosurgery, electrochemotherapy and emergencies.
  • To provide a multidisciplinary ‘team approach’ to all our cases as we work with internists, oncology consultants, dermatologists, and radiologists to provide the best available treatment for our Patients.
  • To have input from all our Surgeons regarding cases to ensure that we can make the most well informed decision for the optimum care of your pet.
  • To provide excellent post-surgical follow up for your pet including the management of any complications that may arise from the procedure. We do not just send your pet back to your regular Veterinarian; we have a duty of care to ensure we guide you through the postoperative period.

Diseases, Procedures & Treatments

Routinely performed surgical procedures at our centre include:

  • Tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO) for cranial cruciate ligament ruptures;
  • Basic and advanced fracture repairs;
  • Minimally invasive orthopaedics with use of intra-operative fluoroscopy;
  • Arthroscopy;
  • Minimally invasive surgery including laparoscopy, thoracoscopy, and tracheal stenting, CO2 surgical laser;
  • Hemilaminectomy and ventral slot procedure for acute disc ruptures;
  • Wobbler surgery;
  • Brain surgery;
  • Spinal fracture repairs;
  • Portosystemic shunt surgery;
  • Hernia repairs;
  • Thoracic surgery including lung removal, surgical ligation of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA);
  • Gastrointestinal surgery;
  • Urinary and reproductive tract surgery;
  • Tumour removals and reconstruction;
  • Upper airway surgery including correction of soft palate elongation and laryngeal paralysis (BOAS);
  • Emergency surgery.

Surgical Oncology

At the Melbourne Veterinary Specialist Centre we pride ourselves on offering the only multidisciplinary approach to cancer Patients in Victoria. Dr Charles Kuntz has completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at Colorado State University. 

Our Surgeons work with our Internal Medicine Specialists along with veterinary oncology specialists when required, during both the pre and postoperative period to provide comprehensive treatment for pets with cancer. This allows us to provide cancer treatments that include a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, electrochemotherapy and radiation therapy. With aggressive surgery many cancer Patients can be cured of their disease without having to resort to other treatment modalities.

Many of these procedures are quite radical and potentially disturbing cosmetically to pet owners. All of our Surgeons are cognisant of this and will spend time showing pet owners photographs of similar cases to reassure them that their pet will be functional and that we will achieve a cosmetic result. Commonly performed surgical oncology procedures include:

  • Wide excision of soft tissue sarcomas, mast cell tumours, vaccine associated sarcomas;
  • Limb salvage for osteosarcoma;
  • Thoracotomy for thoracic tumours, such as lung masses, thymomas, and chest wall masses;
  • Brain and spinal cord tumour removals;
  • Abdominal tumour removals;
  • Maxillectomy and mandibulectomy for tumours of the oral cavity;
  • Skin tumour removal and reconstruction using skin flaps, skin grafts, or microvascular techniques.

Neurosurgery

All of our Surgeons are well trained in neurosurgery and routinely perform decompressive surgeries of the spinal cord for disc ruptures and removal of spinal tumours.

Acute disc extrusions, if treated promptly, carry an excellent prognosis and it brings us great satisfaction to get paralysed pets back on their feet to resume a normal life.

Preparing For Your Visit

  • The initial consultation usually lasts one hour and may involve sedation and further radiographs (X-rays) if required.
  • In some cases more advanced imaging such as MRI or CT may be recommended and can sometimes be performed on the same day as the visit.
  • Surgery is often performed the same day or the day following the initial consultation.
  • The possible complications, risks, and expected outcome are discussed during the consultation and you will be required to sign both a consent form and an estimate form prior to hospital admission. A 50% deposit of the estimate is required prior to all surgical procedures being performed.
  • After surgery you will be contacted by telephone and will be informed of how the surgery went and how your pet is recovering.
  • Most Patients stay the night of surgery under the supervision of our overnight nursing staff.
  • Many Patients are able to go home the day after surgery and a discharge appointment will be made with the Surgeon to discuss the postoperative care instructions. You will be provided with written discharge instructions to guide you through the post operative period.
  • Your referring Veterinarian will be contacted via telephone and a written report will be emailed or faxed. A copy will also be posted with digital photos attached for his/her records.
  • We prefer to perform our own revisit examinations. If you live a long distance from the centre, follow up examinations can be performed by your referring Veterinarian in consultation with our Surgeons.