Dog surgery FAQs

Our urolith extraction package starts at $950, which includes pre-anesthetic blood screening, urinalysis, anesthesia with continuous monitoring, the cystotomy itself, retrograde urethral hydropropulsion, medications, and the follow-up healing evaluation. Corporate referral hospitals in this region routinely quote $3,000 or more for the same operation. Stone analysis and the prescription diet that follows are quoted separately because they depend on what we find.

If your dog is straining but still producing urine, contact us the same day. If your dog is straining and producing nothing at all, that is a genuine emergency. A complete urethral obstruction backs pressure up into the kidneys and becomes life-threatening within a day. Go to the nearest emergency hospital immediately for decompression, then contact us about the surgery.

Some can. Struvite stones frequently dissolve with a dedicated therapeutic diet and treatment of the underlying urinary infection, over a period of weeks. Calcium oxalate stones do not dissolve at all and require surgical removal. This is exactly why identifying the stone type matters, and why we send removed stones for analysis.

Recurrence is a real risk, and it is the thing we work hardest to prevent. Three measures make the difference: retrieving every stone including fragments in the urethra, analysing the stones so the right preventive diet can be prescribed, and keeping your dog well hydrated afterwards. Dogs whose owners follow the diet and encourage water intake have a far lower recurrence rate.

Mild, gradually decreasing blood-tinged urine is expected for the first three to five days after bladder surgery. It should get lighter each day, not heavier. Heavy fresh bleeding, clots, straining without producing urine, or an inability to urinate at all needs an immediate call.

Most dogs are comfortable within a couple of days and fully recovered in one to two weeks. Activity is restricted for the full fortnight while the bladder wall and abdominal incision heal, and the complimentary healing evaluation at 10 to 14 days confirms everything has closed properly.

The same surgical approach used for a different reason: repairing a traumatic bladder tear, retrieving a deep tissue biopsy from the bladder wall, or excising a benign bladder-wall mass. These procedures start at $900 and use the identical safety and monitoring protocol.

Within days. Bladder stones are painful and can progress to a complete obstruction, so we do not treat them as routine elective work. Where a dog is partially obstructed, we schedule same or next day.

Cystotomy has a high success rate when performed by experienced veterinary surgeons with proper technique. The most common cause of repeat surgery is a stone fragment left in the urethra, which is why our standard protocol includes retrograde urethral hydropropulsion to flush the entire tract before closure. Combined with post-op stone analysis and the correct therapeutic prescription diet, the recurrence rate drops significantly.

Every procedure under general anesthesia carries some risk, which is why we include pre-anesthetic blood screening and continuous multi-parameter monitoring (SpO2, ECG, blood pressure, core temperature) on every case. Healthy dogs tolerate cystotomy well and are typically comfortable within a couple of days. Dogs with elevated kidney values from a partial obstruction receive an adjusted anesthetic plan to reduce risk further.

Between $150 and $950 per procedure (2026 pricing), depending on how many teeth are involved and how difficult they are to remove. That range includes anesthesia, pre-anesthetic blood screening, continuous monitoring, infraorbital or mandibular nerve blocks, and digital intraoral dental X-rays. Complete dental cleanings start at $295. We give you a realistic range before anesthesia and confirm it once the radiographs show what is actually happening below the gumline.

Single-rooted teeth at the front of the mouth can often be elevated and lifted out intact. Multi-rooted teeth (premolars and the large carnassials) cannot. They have two or three roots that diverge, so the tooth has to be sectioned into individual root segments, each elevated separately, usually under a raised mucoperiosteal flap with a small amount of alveolar bone removed. Then the site is closed. That is a genuine surgical procedure, and it is why the price differs.

Yes, and this is not an upsell. They are included in our pricing. The majority of canine dental disease sits below the gumline where no visual examination can reach: root abscesses, bone loss, resorptive lesions, and retained root fragments from previous extractions. X-rays also confirm after the fact that a root has been fully removed. A retained root fragment is the most common cause of ongoing pain after an extraction performed elsewhere.

A significant one. An infraorbital block numbs the upper jaw on that side; an inferior alveolar block numbs the lower. With the region genuinely numb we can run the general anesthetic lighter, which is safer for older dogs, and your dog wakes up without the pain surge that otherwise follows an extraction. They are included on every extraction we perform.

Dogs almost never stop eating from dental pain. They adapt. Watch instead for chewing on one side, dropping food or toys, bad breath that has got noticeably worse, pawing at the face, reluctance to have the head touched, or a sudden preference for soft food. Many owners only realize how uncomfortable their dog was once the problem teeth are gone.

Pre-anesthetic blood screening checks liver and kidney function before we agree a date, so the protocol is built around your dog's actual values. Nerve blocks keep the anesthetic depth low. Continuous SpO2, ECG, blood pressure, and core temperature monitoring runs throughout, and your dog is kept warm on a heated table. Leaving painful, infected teeth in place carries its own risks, which is the comparison that matters.

Most dogs eat softened food comfortably within a day or two and are fully back to normal within a week. Extraction sites are closed with dissolvable sutures that do not need removing. Feed soft food for about a week, avoid hard chews and toys during that period, and give the prescribed pain relief even if your dog seems fine.

Yes. We surgically excise benign oral tumors and repair canine jaw fractures, alongside deep periodontal flap closures and oroantral fistula closure where an extraction has communicated with the nasal cavity. Where a mass appears malignant and needs oncological staging, we will tell you that directly.

From around $1,200, and that figure already includes the pre-op abdominal radiographs, pre-anesthetic blood screening, IV fluid support, anesthesia with continuous monitoring, the surgery itself, and post-operative medications. Emergency and referral hospitals in the Christiana corridor routinely quote $3,000 to $5,000 for the same procedure. What pushes our price up is complexity: a linear foreign body that has damaged a section of intestine may need resection and anastomosis, and a dog that arrives septic needs more intensive support.

Treat it as one. Call us immediately rather than waiting to see what happens. Red flags that mean act now: repeated vomiting, refusing food or water, lethargy, straining without producing stool, a hunched posture, or a painful abdomen. Some small smooth objects do pass, but you cannot tell which from the outside, and an obstruction that has been sitting for two days is a far more dangerous operation than one caught the same day.

No. Call us first. Inducing vomiting can make some obstructions dramatically worse. A sharp bone fragment or a corn cob coming back up can tear the esophagus, and a linear foreign body should never be moved. There are situations where induced vomiting is the right call, but that decision needs to be made by a vet who knows what was swallowed and when.

A gastrotomy opens the stomach; an enterotomy opens the small intestine. Which one your dog needs depends entirely on where the object has lodged. Objects still in the stomach are generally the better scenario. The stomach heals well and has an excellent blood supply. Once an object has moved into the intestine it can obstruct, and if it has been there long enough to compromise the blood supply, that section of bowel has to be removed and the ends joined, a resection and anastomosis.

A linear foreign body anchors at one end, usually under the tongue or at the pylorus, while the intestine keeps trying to move the rest along. The intestine bunches up on the string like fabric on a thread, and the taut string saws through the bowel wall from the inside. This causes multiple perforation points and peritonitis. Never pull on a visible string, and call us the moment you suspect one.

Rocks and most bones are radiopaque, so they usually appear clearly on abdominal radiographs. Fabric, rubber, and plastic frequently do not, which is why we read the surrounding pattern (gas distension, a plicated bowel loop, or fluid accumulation) rather than looking only for the object. Where radiographs are inconclusive, abdominal ultrasound gives us the answer.

About two weeks. Food is reintroduced gradually over the first several days, starting with small, frequent, bland meals rather than a normal portion. Activity is restricted for the full fortnight while the abdominal incision and the gut closure heal. The signs that need an immediate call are renewed vomiting, refusal to eat, a swollen or oozing incision, lethargy, or a painful abdomen.

Within days as standard, and same-day when the clinical picture is time-critical. This is the core reason owners in Wilmington, Newtown Square, and Newark come to us. Coordinating across a network of surgical calendars means we are not limited to whatever slot one building happens to have free.

Prognosis is strongly tied to timing. A dog that reaches surgery within 24 hours of swallowing an object, before the bowel loses blood supply, has an excellent outlook. The risk climbs when obstruction has been present long enough to cause devitalized bowel or peritonitis, which is why we schedule these cases within days and treat same-day requests as the emergency they are.

In some cases endoscopy can retrieve objects still sitting in the stomach, but it cannot reach the small intestine where most obstructions cause damage. Endoscopy also requires general anesthesia, the same as surgery. At Brandywine Valley Dog Surgery, we evaluate every case on X-rays first and will tell you if a non-surgical option exists. Most cases that reach us have already moved past the point where endoscopy is viable.

From around $1,800. The figure includes pre-anesthetic blood screening, anesthesia with continuous monitoring, the reduction and fixation, the implants themselves, immediate post-operative radiographs, and medications. What drives it higher is complexity: comminuted fractures with multiple fragments, fractures involving a joint surface, open fractures requiring an external fixator, and cases needing serial recheck radiographs over a longer healing period.

No. Stable, non-displaced fractures (particularly in young dogs with strong healing potential) can heal in external coaptation such as a Robert Jones bandage or a cast, with strict rest. Surgery becomes necessary when the fracture is displaced, when it is comminuted into multiple fragments, when it involves a joint surface, or when the bone will not stay aligned in a cast. Radiographs make that decision, not guesswork.

It depends on the bone and the fracture pattern. Dynamic compression plating (DCP or LC-DCP) gives rigid stability and is well suited to long-bone fractures under load. An intramedullary pin runs down the marrow cavity and resists bending but not rotation, so it is often combined with K-wires or a cerclage. External fixation places pins through the skin into the bone connected to an external frame, which is valuable for open or heavily contaminated fractures where implanting hardware at the site carries infection risk.

Typically six to twelve weeks. Young dogs heal at the fast end, older dogs at the slow end. Healing progresses through inflammation, soft callus, hard callus formation, and finally remodelling. We confirm progress with orthogonal recheck radiographs rather than by how well your dog appears to be walking, because dogs will happily bear weight on a bone that is nowhere near healed.

Most traumatic fractures that are repaired promptly and rested properly heal to full function. The two biggest predictors of a poor result are delay in getting the bone stabilised and activity too early during healing. Fractures involving a joint surface carry a higher risk of later arthritis in that joint, and we will tell you if your dog's fracture falls into that category.

Strict confinement, and considerably more of it than most owners expect. Crate or small-room rest, lead-only toilet breaks, no stairs, no jumping onto furniture, and no off-lead running until we clear it on radiographs. Non-union, a fracture that fails to knit, is most often caused by movement at the fracture site, which is exactly what activity restriction prevents.

No. Our orthopedic scope is strictly traumatic bone fracture repair. We do not perform elective orthopedic procedures such as TPLO, extracapsular cruciate repair, or patellar luxation correction. If that is what your dog needs, we will tell you plainly and point you toward a surgeon who does that work regularly.

Go to your nearest emergency veterinary hospital immediately. A dog that has been hit by a car needs assessment for chest and abdominal injury, internal bleeding, and shock before anyone thinks about the leg. Fractures are visible and alarming, but they are rarely the thing that kills a dog in the first hours. Once your dog is stable, contact us about the repair.

Mass removal starts at $450. That figure covers pre-anesthetic blood screening, anesthesia, continuous vital-sign monitoring, the excision itself, a cosmetic subcuticular closure, home-recovery medications, and the complimentary 10-to-14 day healing evaluation. What moves the price is size, depth, and number: a small superficial skin mass sits near the bottom, while a large deep subcutaneous mass or several masses in one session cost more. Histopathology is quoted separately because it is your decision, and we will tell you honestly when we think it is worth doing.

Nobody can tell by looking, including us. Benign lipomas, histiocytomas, and sebaceous adenomas can look identical to a mast cell tumor from the outside. A fine-needle aspirate gives a strong indication in minutes, and histopathology after removal confirms it. What raises concern is rapid growth, firmness, ulceration, bleeding, or a mass that is fixed to the tissue underneath rather than moving freely.

No. A small, stable, confirmed-benign lump on an older dog can reasonably be monitored. We recommend removal when a mass is growing, changing in texture, interfering with movement, sitting somewhere that will make later surgery harder, ulcerating, or when we cannot confidently say it is benign.

A single straightforward skin mass is usually under an hour of surgical time, though your dog will be with us for most of the day for admission, pre-anesthetic checks, and supervised recovery. Larger, deeper, or multiple masses take longer.

Usually yes, for about two weeks. Cosmetic subcuticular closures give dogs much less to chew at than external staples, but a determined licker can still open an incision, and a seroma or an infection is a far bigger problem than a fortnight of inconvenience.

A seroma is a soft fluid pocket that forms in the space left behind after a mass is removed. It is usually harmless and resolves on its own, but it worries owners. We reduce the risk with careful closure of the dead space and by restricting activity for the first two weeks. If one forms, let us know at the follow-up evaluation.

Keep activity restricted for roughly two weeks, until the incision is checked and cleared at the follow-up evaluation. Lead walks only, no jumping, no rough play, and no swimming. Bursting an incision on day nine is one of the few genuinely avoidable complications.

We will if you want them gone, but we will also tell you honestly when watching is reasonable. Lipomas earn removal when they grow large enough to interfere with a leg, sit where a harness rubs, change in character, or when there is any doubt that they are truly benign. Infiltrative lipomas invade surrounding tissue and do need surgery.

Prognosis depends on the tumor type and whether surgical margins are clear. Benign masses like lipomas, histiocytomas, and sebaceous adenomas rarely recur after complete excision. For malignant tumors such as mast cell tumors, clean margins confirmed by histopathology give the best long-term outcome, which is why we plan margins before the first incision and recommend lab analysis whenever malignancy is possible.

Pyometra is a bacterial infection of the uterus that fills it with pus. It develops in unspayed female dogs, typically two to eight weeks after a heat cycle, when hormonal changes make the uterine lining hospitable to bacteria. It is an emergency because the infection releases toxins into the bloodstream, causing sepsis and endotoxemia, and because a distended uterus can rupture and spill infected material into the abdomen. Untreated pyometra is frequently fatal within days.

The classic picture is a female dog who finished a heat cycle in the last two months and is now lethargic, off her food, drinking and urinating far more than usual, and possibly vomiting. Open pyometra also produces a foul-smelling discharge from the vulva. Closed pyometra produces no discharge at all, which is why it is more dangerous. The pus has nowhere to go, and owners have no obvious sign to act on.

From around $1,100 (2026 pricing), including pre-anesthetic blood screening, IV fluids, broad-spectrum antibiotics, the ovariohysterectomy itself, continuous monitoring, and post-operative medications. Corporate emergency hospitals in the Wilmington and Newark corridors routinely quote considerably more for the same procedure. Dogs that arrive severely septic need more intensive support and cost more, and we will tell you that up front rather than after. CareCredit financing is accepted.

Medical management with prostaglandins exists, but it is unreliable, slow, only appropriate for a subset of open pyometra cases in otherwise stable dogs, and carries a high recurrence rate at the next heat cycle. Surgery is the standard of care because it removes the source of infection completely and permanently.

In open pyometra the cervix is open, so infected material drains out through the vulva. That discharge is unpleasant but it is a warning sign and it relieves pressure. In closed pyometra the cervix is sealed, so the pus accumulates under increasing pressure with no external sign. Closed cases become critically ill faster and carry a real risk of uterine rupture.

Sick is exactly why surgery is needed. The infection will not resolve while the uterus remains. What changes is the preparation. We stabilise with IV fluid resuscitation and antibiotics before induction, monitor continuously throughout, and adjust the anesthetic protocol to the packed cell volume and kidney values we measure. Waiting until a septic dog is stronger is not an option, because she will not get stronger.

Most dogs look dramatically better within 24 hours of the source of infection being removed. Full recovery takes about two weeks with restricted activity while the abdominal incision heals, plus a complete course of antibiotics. The complimentary healing evaluation at 10 to 14 days checks the incision and confirms she is back to normal.

No. An ovariohysterectomy removes both ovaries and the uterus, so pyometra cannot recur. This is also why spaying a female dog you do not intend to breed from is the single most effective prevention there is.

The main indications are a splenic mass, a splenic hematoma, acute splenic rupture after trauma, and hemoperitoneum (free blood in the abdomen from a bleeding spleen). Some dogs present as an emergency, having collapsed suddenly with pale gums. Others are found on a routine ultrasound with no symptoms at all. In both cases, a spleen that is bleeding or likely to bleed needs to come out.

No, and this is the most important thing to understand before you decide. Roughly half of canine splenic masses turn out to be benign, hematomas or nodular hyperplasia. The other half are malignant, most commonly hemangiosarcoma. No imaging can reliably tell them apart. Only histopathology of the removed spleen gives you an answer, which means surgery is both the treatment and the diagnostic step.

From around $1,500, including pre-anesthetic blood screening, anesthesia with continuous Lead II ECG monitoring, the splenectomy itself, post-operative PCV and lactate monitoring, and medications. Imaging and histopathology are quoted separately. Referral hospitals routinely price this procedure at two to three times our figure.

Yes. The spleen filters blood and stores red cells, but the liver and bone marrow take over those functions comfortably. Dogs who have had a splenectomy live normal lives with normal energy. There is no special diet and no long-term medication required for the absence of the spleen itself.

Splenic disease is strongly associated with ventricular premature contractions (abnormal heartbeats originating in the ventricles). They can appear during surgery or in the 24 to 48 hours afterwards. Most are self-limiting, but a proportion need treatment, and you cannot treat what you are not watching for. Continuous Lead II ECG runs throughout the procedure and into recovery.

Most dogs are home within a day or two and comfortable quickly, with two weeks of restricted activity while the abdominal incision heals. We monitor packed cell volume and lactate through the early recovery because those numbers reveal ongoing bleeding before it becomes obvious. Warning signs at home are pale gums, weakness, a distended abdomen, or collapse, all of which need an immediate call.

Histopathology typically returns within about a week. We will call you with the result and explain what it means for your dog either way, including what a hemangiosarcoma diagnosis realistically involves and what your options are.

Splenic disease is largely a disease of older dogs, so age alone cannot be the deciding factor. What matters is organ function and cardiac status, both of which we assess before surgery. A bleeding spleen left in place is not a safer option than removing it.