Surgery

The best equipped centre for imaging orthopaedic injuries with in-house MRI, CT, X-ray, arthroscopy, and ultrasound.


Our highly skilled team of vets are experts in diagnosing and repairing injury or disease. View the most common types of surgery below or call us for immediate advice.

Orthopaedic surgery

If your dog, cat, chicken or rabbit has a broken bone, one of our skilful surgeons will be able to repair it with the best equipment available.

Signs for a broken bone can sometimes be very subtle. Most dogs or cats will manage to limp home after a car accident or may try to walk on a broken limb after a fall. If your pet is limping, carrying/not walking on their leg or is reluctant to move at all, it may need an x-ray or better still, a CT scan. We treat all lameness cases as emergencies and make sure they are seen promptly. 

Our range of the latest orthopaedic implants include:

  • Titanium and stainless-steel locking and dynamic compressive plates

  • Carbon fibre/aluminium linear external fixator system

  • Carbon fibre/stainless steel Ilizarov fixator system (ring fixator)

We can also create custom 3D print implants and employ AO/ASIF and MIPO (minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis). 

Cruciate surgery

Cruciate rupture is one of the most common causes of acute lameness in dogs. Sometimes it can occur sudden when chasing the ball or running around in the park, other times it has a slower onset. 

We perform various cruciate surgeries and believe there is no “one size fits all” approach to cruciate disease.

The most common cruciate procedure we perform is the tibial plateau levelling osteotomy or TPLO. It is predictable and reliable and can be applied to most cases. In cases with an excessive tibial plateau angle, we opt for a CORA bases Cranial Closing/Caudal Opening Tibial Wedge osteotomy. This is a variation of the Closing Wedge Osteotomy. We prefer these techniques over tibial tuberosity advancement.

Not only are we one of Canberra’s most affordable hospitals for cruciate surgery, we can offer a range of payment options such as Vet-pay, Zip-money and Centre-pay. 

Patellar surgery

Patellar disease is a common cause of lameness in small and large dogs. Often owners will notice their dog intermittently skipping when walking before carrying on running normally. More severe cases or dogs and cats with bilateral patellar luxation may be unwilling to walking on their hind legs or walk was a low head carriage to shift weight onto the front legs.

The cause of patellar luxation varies from patient to patient. Most patients will have tibial torsional deformities and/or distal femoral varus resulting in “extensor mal-alignment”. Most lower grade small breed dogs can be treated with relative ease using a combination of procedures such as a tibial tuberosity transposition, groove resection/tracheoplasty and lateral imbrication. 

Large breed and high-grade small breed dogs greatly benefit from CT pre-operative surgical planning. Extensor mal alignment is better appreciated on CT compared to plain film x-ray. CT also allows for custom-made, patient specific 3D printed surgical jigs which improve the accuracy of corrective procedures such as distal femoral wedge osteotomies.

We are proud to be one of the few hospitals in Australia offering this advanced surgical procedure.

Arthrodesis and limb sparing procedures

Ligament injuries in the lower limb are sometimes best treated by joint fusion. Here at Belconnen Veterinary centre, we offer a range of arthrodesis procedures such as pan-carpal and pan-tarsal arthrodesis.

Soft tissue procedures

Our vets can perform a wide range of soft tissue procedures including the following procedures:

  • Lump and cutaneous mass removals

  • Skin flap procedures, reconstructive surgeries

  • Ocular surgeries:

    • Eyelid tumour removal

    • Repairing corneal tears and perforations

    • Conjunctival pedicle flaps to treat corneal ulcers

    • Sequestrum surgery

    • Removing foreign bodies and thorns from the eyes

  • Ear surgeries:

    • Total ear canal ablation

    • Lateral wall resection 

    • Tumour removal 

  • Abdominal surgeries:

    • Foreign body removal

    • Liver lobectomies/tumour removal

    • Splenectomies – splenic tumour removal

    • Cholecystectomies – gall bladder removal

    • Enterectomies/enterotomies – foreign body and tumour surgeries of the bowel

  • Oral and throat surgery:

    • Soft palate and brachycephalic surgery

    • Oral tumour removal

    • Tonsillectomies

    • Laryngeal tie-backs 

  • Urogenital surgery

    • Urolith removal – bladder stone removal 

    • Ureteral stent placement for kidney stones

  • Thoracic surgery

    • Lung lobectomies – lung tumour removal

    • Pericardiectomy – alleviates pressure on the heart in cases of pericardial effusion

    • Surgical exploration of the thoracic cavity in cases of pyothorax (pus the in the thoracic cavity)

Oncology

We are well equipped to deal with most soft tissue masses. Cutaneous tumours are reasonably common in dogs. These include benign masses suspect as lipomas, chondromas and fibromas through to the nastier soft tissue sarcomas and mast cell tumours. Typically, these masses will be examined during a consultation and can often be diagnosed by a quick fine needle aspirate. Some tumours can be a little more difficult to diagnose and a biopsy may be required.

Abdominal and thoracic tumours are sometimes a little harder to diagnosis and might not become obvious until later in the disease process. For this reason, we strongly recommend screening any older patient that is a little “off” as soon as possible. The initial signs of a liver, splenic or lung tumour might be very subtle. Owners often report coughing, lethargy, unwillingness to play, reduced appetite or heavy breathing. Fortunately, here at Belconnen veterinary centre, we are well equipped to make a prompt diagnosis and get your pet the treatment it needs in a timely manner.