Cessnock Veterinary Centre and Hospital prides itself on providing a high standard of care both medical and surgical to the much loved pets of their clients. Being a busy hospital with a high case load and a lot of veterinarians, it allows the practice to develop areas of special interest. While there is a strong focus on treatments, there are many other things that important for a safe and healthy pet including micro-chipping, behavioural training, dietary and nutritional counselling, along with pet food and other supplies.
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Dr David Barton especially enjoys complex soft tissue surgery and orthopaedic surgery and said that the most common orthopaedic problem he sees is ruptures of the cruciate ligament. “When left untreated there is is a large amount of resulting pain and possible lameness. Surgical correction allows for return of function and minimises ongoing arthritis,” he said.
When you hear the words cruciate ligament, you automatically envision athletes pulling up lame or footballers going down clasping at the knee. These vital ligaments are just as important, and susceptible to injury, for dogs. If your dog goes lame in one of their hind legs, they may have torn or ruptured their cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) which is similar to the ACL in humans. This ligament connects the back of the femur, which is the bone above the knee, to the front of the tibia, the bone below the knee. Practice manager, Renae Bentley, said that up to date techniques such as the Modified Maquet Procedure (MMP) allows the veterinarian surgeons to provide better solutions to clients and reduce recovery times for there pets.
Dr Robert Boyd has a special interest in video endoscopy which is putting tiny cameras in unusual places. He said being able to look on the inside allows surgeons to actually visualise disease where previously more invasive surgery was required. "Only recently, we were able to use our equipment to retrieve a Lego brick from inside a cats stomach without surgery,” he said.
Ultrasonography, a method of viewing the bodies organs using sound waves, is another interest at Cessnock Veterinary Centre and Hospital with Dr Damian Burke explaining it helped the team to make non invasive diagnosis and was especially useful for heart disease, along with disease of the pancreas, liver, kidneys and bladder.
Small but important, the eye is a special interest of Dr Andy Robins, with disease of the complex organ capturing his attention. "We’re able to use really sophisticated equipment to visualise the back of an eye and even measure the pressure within the eye. Sometimes the most difficult aspect is keeping our furry patients still for the procedure,” he said.