Surgery and anesthesia should not be taken lightly and we are honored to be your trusted surgery team. We adhere to high surgery and anesthesia standards to optimize the safest gas anesthesia and best surgical outcomes. At Island Animal Hospital of Venice our veterinarians perform pre-surgical bloodwork to assess your pets various body functions for anesthesia. Anesthesia risk scoring is done as well as a tailored anesthesia protocol for each patient. We utilize gas anesthesia for our pet surgery which allows for constant adjusting based on the patient needs as well as a quicker recovery. While Dr. Teuscher is performing surgery, your pet is always monitored by a trained staff member as well as various machines checking pulse oximetry, heartbeat, blood pressure, etc. We utilize circulating warm water blankets as patient comfort and body temperature is a high priority.

All sterile surgeries are performed in our surgical suit with the doctor wearing a cap, mask, gloves, and gown. Each surgery is performed with a sterile surgery pack as sterility is our upmost concern. Most routine and non-routine surgeries are able to be discharged the same day with home care instructions. At Island Animal Hospital we are a pain free hospital!! Each patient is given pain medications before surgery is started and most go home with additional pain medications tailored to each pets need and surgical procedure. Our staff monitors each animal closely as they are recovering from anesthesia and surgery maintaining a high standard of patient comfort and care. We perform surgery on dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and chinchillas, to name a few!!

Spay and Neuter surgery:

Routine spay and neuter surgery is common and has numerous health and behavioral benefits as well as population control. The appropriate timeframe to spay and neuter your pet is dependent on many researched factors, especially breed. Our doctor will have a detailed discussion with you, tailored to your specific pet, on what age is the best time for spay and neuter surgery. We would be glad to provide you with a detailed estimate and explain the many differences between high quality surgery at our hospital and a low cost spay neuter clinic.

Soft tissue surgery:

Numerous problems can arise in your pet from bladder stones and intestinal foreign bodies to skin growths and spleen tumors. Dr. Teuscher has years of experience in soft tissue surgery and is here to help. We will always go over the surgery and post op expectations in detail, answer all your questions, and provide a surgery estimate. The following are some examples of the many surgeries we perform at Island Animal Hospital.

• Ocular (enucleation, entropion, ectropion, cherry eye, grid keratotomy)
• Ear (lateral ear resection)
• Nasal (stenotic nares resection)
• Thoracic (diaphragmatic hernias)
• Abdominal (splenectomy, nephrectomy, intestinal resection and anastomoses, foreign body removal surgery, cystotomy, exploratory laparotomy with organ biopsy)
• Genital (spay, neuter, perineal urethrostomy)
• Skin (grafting, mastectomy, anal saculectomy, tumor/lump removals)

Orthopedic Surgery (bone surgery):

Sometimes a broken bone can be healed using a cast, sometimes surgery is needed. Dr. Teuscher has taken orthopedic continuing education courses over his career to learn new techniques and provide the best options for his patients. He performed orthopedic surgeries at a progressive AAHA practice in Illinois, even performing surgery for other area veterinarians who did not offer orthopedic (bone) surgery in their practice. With attention to detail, proper surgical equipment, and careful pre-surgical planning we can repair problems from broken bones (fractures) to ruptured ligaments (ACL). Many surgeries such as TPLO (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy) for ACL rupture, patella luxation surgery, and hip surgery require you the pet owner to become a valued part of the team with at home post-op physical rehabilitation. We will teach you the exercises and show you step by step what to do! The following are some examples of the many animal orthopedic (bone) surgeries we perform at Island Animal Hospital.

• TPLO (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy for ACL tear)
• Secros extracapsular lateral stabilization with bone anchor for ACL tear
• MPL (luxating patella repair)
• FHO (femoral head osteotomy for hip disease/fracture)
• Fracture repair (external fixation, pins, some plating)
• Collateral ligament repair (bone anchors)
• Amputations