Southwest Veterinary Services is a mobile veterinary surgical team providing advanced surgical care to dogs and cats within your veterinarian’s hospital.SVS was established in 2011 to enable veterinary practices to offer advanced surgical care to their clients within the confines of their own hospital. VSS is based in Greater Vancouver area and is available to serve veterinary practices located within Greater Vancouver, Lower Mainland and Fraser
Valley.
We strive to provide the highest quality of advanced surgical care by strictly adhering to accepted standards for the treatment of animals. As a result, we, along with local veterinary hospitals, are able to give pets the absolute best veterinary care.
Choosing a Surgeon for Your Pet:
Your pet has been diagnosed with a condition that
needs surgery and your doctor has recommended either referring your pet to a
surgeon or bringing in a mobile surgeon to perform the surgery at their
hospital. The purpose of this is to help you choose a qualified
surgeon. There are many
different levels of expertise among those willing to perform surgery and many
general practitioners who do not exclusively do surgeries may offer to do your
pet’s surgery, often times at a much reduced fee. A good thing to remember is
that “good medicine is usually not cheap and cheap medicine is not necessarily
good.” The most important thing to understand is the types of surgeons that are
available.
A. General Practitioner
- 1. General Practitioner Surgeon:
Virtually all general practitioners (GP’s) perform surgery
as part of their overall practice. Routine surgeries, like spays and neuters,
declaws, laceration repairs, C-sections, bladder stones, small tumor excisions,
are basic surgeries that all veterinarians are trained to perform in veterinary
college. No special skills are needed for these procedures beyond basic
surgical skills.
- 2. General Practitioner with “Special Interest”
in Surgery:
Some GP’s have a “special interest” in surgery and attend
continuing education training to learn more advanced skills. They are competent
in some procedures. Most have also invested in specialized equipment to perform
these procedures.
B.
Surgeons with Formal Advanced Training
- 1. Internship Trained Practitioner:
After four years of veterinary college, a small percentage
of veterinarians continue their training with an internship for one year. Internships
do not “specialize” in anything.
- 2. Residency Trained (Board Qualified): After completing an
internship, veterinarians continue their training in a surgical residency that
can last three to four years. You become “board qualified” after this training
and are a candidate to take the exam for board
certification once your credentials are accepted by ACVS.
- 3.
Board Certified Surgeon:
The term "ACVS Diplomate" refers to a
veterinarian who has been board certified in veterinary surgery. Only
veterinarians who have successfully completed the certification requirements of
the ACVS are Diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and have
earned the right to be called specialists in veterinary surgery.
C. Experience
versus Credentials:
Only you can decide how to decide between credentials and
experience. Be wary of anyone who calls themselves a “surgery specialist”
without clearly declaring whether they are boarded or board qualified and other credentials.
Here are some important questions to ask anyone offering to
do surgery on your pet:
- 1. Are you a board qualified or certified surgeon?
- 2. Did you complete any advanced training?
- 3. Which procedure will you be doing on my pet?
- 4. How many of these procedures have you done?
- 5. How long have you been doing this procedure?
- 6. What complications have you had and in what percent of the
cases?
- 7 Do you monitor my pet while they under anesthesia with
pulse ox, CO2, ECG, blood pressure and temperature?
- 8. What pain management do you utilize? Do you offer epidurals
or other multimodal pain interventions?
- 9. Do you have a go home handout for me with detailed home
care?
- 10. Do you offer physical therapy after surgery?
