Gastrointestinal surgery is an umbrella term for any type of surgery of the stomach or intestines, and sometimes including other surgeries on abdominal structures such as the liver or spleen.

There are many different reasons why a pet may need gastrointestinal surgery. Some of the most common examples that we care for at Friends For Life include emergency and preventative gastropexy (to treat gastric torsion), gastrotomy (to remove foreign objects from the stomach), hernia repair (to push intestines back into place), intestinal biopsies (to diagnose gastrointestinal problems), and more.

Learn more about gastrointestinal surgery here.

Urogenital surgery refers to any surgery performed on the urinary tract (most commonly, the urinary bladder or urethra) or the reproductive organs, including penis, testicles, vagina, ovaries, and uterus.

Some of the urogenital surgeries we perform at Friends For Life include: PU surgery (to create a new hole for a pet to urinate from), urethropexy (to correct urethral prolapse), cystotomy (to remove bladder stones or bladder mass), spays and neuters (to prevent breeding), anal sacculectomy (to remove anal glands), and more.

Procedures vary, but know that your pet is in good hands at Friends For Life.

Learn more about urogenital surgery here.

Masses are a common condition in pets, and generally more common in dogs than in cats. They can grow on, in, or just under the skin. Ranging in size from a couple of millimeters to football-sized, masses can represent a wide variety of conditions from simple skin tags, to large fatty growths, to scars, to malignant cancers.

If you notice a mass on your pet, visit us for diagnostics. Our vets will likely start with a fine needle aspirate, or FNA, to extract and then examine cells from the mass.

Learn more about mass removals at Friends For Life here.

An aural hematoma is a blood-filled pocket that develops under the skin and cartilage of the pinna (ear flap). It’s common in dogs with chronic ear infections, and occasionally happens in cats, too. The condition occurs when trauma or an injury to the ear flap causes the small blood vessels inside the pinna to break and leak internally, resulting in a blood-filled swelling.

Surgery involves draining the blood pocket and then stitching the ear back up in a way that prevents the pocket from filling up again.

Learn more about aural hematoma surgery here.