Orthopaedic

Orthopaedic surgery encompasses any surgery that is related to bones or joints. It includes procedures such as fracture repairs, ligament repairs and spinal surgery to name a few.

Our veterinarians’ high level of expertise and our practice’s fully equipped surgical suite allows us to perform certain orthopaedic surgical procedures that your pet may require. These may include:

Cranial cruciate ligament repair

We see Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries commonly these days, especially in larger dogs.

It is similar to ACL injury in people but in dogs the underlying cause is different and so the treatments that we use are different.

We can support the dogs with a variety of medical and physiotherapy treatments, but in most cases Surgery is the best option.

Luxating patella repair

This is a very common cause of pain and arthritis in the knees of little dogs.
It results in the Patella (kneecap) dislocating to the inside of the knee when they walk.

Often these dogs will hop, skip and jump when walking as the kneecap flicks in and out of place.

Some dogs can cope well with this but most require corrective Surgery, which is best when performed when they are young to stop the progression of secondary arthritis.

Fracture (broken bone) repair

Amputations for severe injuries or bone cancer cases

JUVENILE PELVIC SYMPHYSIODESIS (JPS)

A JPS is a minor surgical procedure that can be done on puppies prone to Hip Dysplasia (HD)
in order to improve their hips, and reduce the likelihood of the HD causing arthritis later in life.

This procedure must be done on puppies between 16 and 20 weeks of age.
PennHIP Xrays can be taken as early as 4 months of age to see if your puppy would benefit
from this surgery. The pelvis of puppies older than 20 weeks of age is usually too developed for
the procedure to be successful.