Surgery

Surgery is a significant component of any veterinary practice, and with advances in anesthesia, it is safer than ever before.

Nowadays, we can monitor blood pressure, blood oxygen, and respiratory carbon dioxide during anesthesia, making it much easier to adjust the doses of anesthetic drugs and gas to get just the right level of anesthesia.  We also use local blocks (“freezing”) so that less anesthetic is required.

Options for anesthesia have also changed so that we now use a combination of drugs to achieve “balanced anesthesia”.  Pain control is improved and the risk of a reaction to any one drug is reduced.

We have a well-equipped surgical suite with modern anesthesia and monitoring equipment.

We perform a range of surgeries for patients at Nakusp Veterinary Clinic:  Fracture repair using external fixation, abdominal surgery to remove tumours or foreign objects, bladder surgery and eye surgeries are just a few examples.

Dentistry

Dental disease is very common in pets and if left untreated is frequently a cause of pain and infection.

The average dog has 42 teeth; cats have 30 teeth.  Like people, pets can be subject to a whole host of dental problems that can be painful and/or affect other organs such as heart and kidneys.  We use special equipment to take dental radiographs, and a high-speed dental system to perform dental surgery.  Our goal is to keep our patients free of pain and infection!

Nakusp Veterinary Clinic has invested heavily in equipment and training which allows us to provide safe high quality care to your pet’s mouth.  We also routinely consult electronically with veterinary dental specialists about cases and can refer your pet to a specialist for treatment as well.

Some of the dental services we offer are:

Pediatric care, which includes dealing with malocclusions,  extracting retained baby teeth, and selective extractions of permanent teeth when there is no room for them.

Preventive dental care: This usually includes a full dental exam including probing and x-rays under anesthesia followed by cleaning and polishing. We also provide advice on home topics such as tooth brushing and dental diets.

Extractions:  Although we prefer to preserve teeth, once they reach an irreversible stage of disease, they need to be extracted. Reasons for extraction include periodontal disease (the tissues supporting the tooth are damaged by infection), tooth fractures, tooth abscesses  and resorptive lesions (especially common in cats).  Our philosophy is that your pet deserves a mouth free of pain and infection.  Extracting teeth is a complex operation involving freezing with local anesthesia, creating a gingival flap, using our high speed drill to remove bone and section the tooth (if multi-rooted) and finally suturing the flap closed.

We enjoy the challenge of veterinary dentistry. It is especially rewarding to prevent or treat painful conditions.