Surgery

Our surgical staff provides state of the art knowledge, ​​​​​​​care and proficiency to you and your horse. The surgical facility at Chaparral VMC offers two cutting-edge operating rooms and a standing surgery suite. The soft tissue surgery operating theater is dedicated to abdominal and contaminated procedures, while the orthopedic operating theater is strictly dedicated to sterile orthopedic and upper respiratory procedures. We have a highly trained anesthesia staff closely monitoring each procedure. Recovery from anesthesia is considered equally important to the procedure itself and all horses are hand recovered by three people in a padded recovery stall. Additionally, high risk patients or procedures are recovered with a sling recovery system providing the best outcomes. Each surgical procedure can be viewed by the horse owner by video on a television screen in our comfortable viewing center.

Laparoscopic surgery offers a minimally invasive approach to certain procedures offering a safe and rapid return to function. Several procedures including exploratory surgery, cryptorchidectomies, ovariectomies, and nephrosplenic space and inguinal ring ablations can also be performed standing. Chaparral VMC offers comprehensive care using a LigaSure device to safely cauterize internal structures and a morcellator to minimally invasively remove ovaries and ovarian tumors.

With a dedicated operating theater and state of the art equipment including a locking compression plate system for fracture repair and joint arthrodesis and intraoperative digital radiography, surgeons at Chaparral VMC provide the highest quality of care and expected outcomes. A sling recovery system may be elected for safe recoveries from anesthesia in high-risk patients or procedures. Additionally, several orthopedic procedures including splint bone removal, cannon bone drilling, and occasionally fracture repair can be performed standing.

An array of soft tissue surgery is performed daily at Chaparral VMC. This includes but is not limited to colic and other abdominal surgeries as well as reproductive, ophthalmic, podiatric, and oncologic surgery. We are fully staffed on an emergency basis to offer efficient and comprehensive care to your horse.

Chaparral VMC maintains the highest standards of proficiency in upper respiratory surgery. Several novel procedures routinely performed include standing tie-backs and laser surgery including guttural pouch fenestration, ventriculocordectomies, and epiglottic entrapment release. Other commonly performed surgeries include the laryngeal tie-forward, arytenoidectomy, standing sinus surgery, and laryngeal bulking for horses that cough.

Laser surgery can be performed through an endoscope in order to provide a precise surgical approach to otherwise hard to reach places. Laser surgery is commonly performed on excessive soft tissues in the equine upper respiratory tract. It can also be used to open the guttural pouches or remove tumors in the in airway. Additionally, the laser can be used for tumor removal elsewhere in the horse and is especially effective in melanoma removal.

Standing surgery is considered the future of equine surgery as it avoids the inherent risks of waking a horse up from general anesthesia. Chaparral VMC offers a plethora of standing surgical approaches including upper respiratory, sinus, laparoscopic abdominal, ophthalmologic, mass removal, laceration repair, and selected orthopedic procedures. Ask one of our surgeons if the desired procedure can safely be performed standing.

Electrochemotherapy is a novel and highly effective technique used to destroy skin cancers in the horse. The therapy increases the intracellular concentration of chemotherapeutic by 1000 fold resulting in a 20 fold increase in tumor die off. This technique is highly effective in the treatment of sarcoids with over 98.5% success at the end of a 4 year follow-up period (Tamzali 2011). It has also been found to be highly effective for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, and many other cutaneous tumors.