At Dave Cumber Vets we have state of the art surgical facilities to care for your pets. We have separate cat and dog operating theatres fully equipped to allow us to undertake a wide range of surgical procedures.

These include, but are not limited to:

• Routine neutering surgeries
• Dental surgeries
• Orthopaedic surgeries (e.g. repairing fractures and cruciate ligament rupture)
• Keyhole surgeries (e.g. spaying, removing retained testicle, diagnostic internal biopsies)
• Emergency surgeries during the day (e.g. caesareans, tumours, bloat)

All our surgical patients will have an admit appointment with a vet or nurse to confirm the details of their procedure and answer any questions you may have. Once in the practice they have an IV cannula placed and this allows us to give medications throughout their stay, without the need for repeat injections, and place them on a fluid drip to make their anaesthetic as safe as possible. We also offer a pre-anaesthetic blood test to check blood cells, liver and kidney function to ensure your pet is as healthy as possible before their surgery. This can be run on the same day in our in-house laboratory.

As well as separate cat and dog theatres we have separate rooms for sterile and non-sterile procedures. Our sterile theatres have a one-way system to reduce any contamination of the room, are deep cleaned regularly and staff entering must be dressed in specific clothes, for example theatre scrubs, caps, face masks, gloves, gowns and theatre shoes. We have a dedicated area and machines in our nurses’ station for cleaning, packaging and sterilising instruments. This all helps keep your pet safe and reduce the risk of complications such as infections post-surgery.

All areas have piped oxygen to support your pets if needed and we use modern general anaesthetic drugs with a range of anaesthetic circuits. This allows us to tailor procedures to individual patients and keep them as safe as possible. During all procedures our patients are monitored using advanced monitoring equipment which continually assesses blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, carbon dioxide levels and ECG (heart rhythm). We can then adjust the anaesthetic immediately if a concern arises.

As well as separate operating theatres, we have separate cat and dog recovery areas, both of which allow for close monitoring by our knowledgeable and caring staff. Our NHS-standard incubator (the same as is used for neonatal human babies in hospitals) provides additional support for critical patients. We also commonly use this for our also smaller patients including rabbits and guinea-pigs.

We have surgical operating facilities at both our Weymouth and Dorchester branches. We commonly perform routine and smaller surgeries at our Dorchester branch but may refer your pet to our Weymouth practice for more advanced procedures.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our reception team.