Surgery

At Prince Bishop Vets we perform routine and non-routine surgeries and procedures at our Leadgate hospital on a daily basis. If your pet has been booked in for a surgery, we ask you to arrive at the practice between 830am and 9am on the morning of the procedure unless other arrangements have been specifically discussed with us prior to the procedure. Your pet will need to have been starved from 10pm the night before (other than rabbits and small furries), although they can have fresh water left down for them until they arrive at the practice.

One of our nurses will guide you through our consent forms and estimates before admitting your pet for the day and settling them into one of our kennels where our nursing assistants will ensure they are happy and comfortable. All of our patients receive a thorough check by the operating vet before appropriate sedative or anaesthetic drugs are administered. Our patients are monitored continually throughout any procedure or operation by our veterinary nurses and are also monitored as they recover and when they return to their kennel.

For the majority of surgical procedures, we will ask you to make an appointment 5 days after the surgery to check the wound and the stitches (which are usually removed after 12 days). We will provide you with a post-operative care sheet which will give you more information about feeding and exercise in the post-operative period.

In some circumstances, it may be necessary to keep your pet in overnight after an operation or procedure. If this is the case, you will be updated regularly by our nursing team and may be able to visit if it is appropriate.

We were the first veterinary surgery in the North East of England to offer keyhole surgery to our clients. Keyhole procedures are less invasive, less painful and have a much quicker recovery time which is why we recommend this for many speys, retained testicle removals and liver biopsies. Our knowledgeable staff will be able to give you more information on the procedures and help you decide if it’s the right choice for your pet.