6 Modern medical treatment available for dogs and cats
It’s not just humans, but also animals that need care and cure; and veterinarians today offer a host of techniques to keep your pet fit. Time has changed and the veterinarians have a lot more to handle with pets than the basic diseases and vaccinations. Here is a list of modern medical techniques and treatments available for your pets.
1. Back injury treatment
Also called Laser Disk Ablation, this treatment is a relief to dogs having a history of back pain. Normally, the damaged disks are removed from the body of the dog. In this treatment, spinal needles are inserted into the disks of the animal and are later destroyed by lasers. This is a no-hassle treatment of back injury and the disks are saved from the risk of slipping.
2. Bone cancer limb sparing
The Bone Cancer Limb Sparing surgery is used to treat dogs and cats that have bone cancer. The surgery allows the pet to retain the diseased part rather than be amputated. The diseased bone is removed from the body and a section of the bone is taken from another healthy part of the pet’s leg to replace the former. Veterinarians also insert a metal rod into that part of the leg from where the bone has been removed. The pet is allowed to rest for approximately sixteen weeks from the day of implant of the graft, during which the new bone fuses with the original bone.
3.Vision surgery
Ulcers and eye-injuries are very common in pets and are cured very easily. Normally, cornea is transplanted and the pet recovers gradually. But cats develop chronic herpes virus infection that results in the death of the cornea. Veterinarians place a graft of cornea in the eye, and the pet recovers slowly in six months’ time. Cataracts in animals can also be cured easily with vision surgery.
4. Kidney transplants
While most humans and dogs do not acclimatize to kidney transplants, cats easily undergo the treatment and come out unscathed. Donor cats are adopted after donating the kidney and a majority (around 59%) of cats easily sustain three years of life after the surgery. There are universities and private treatment centers offering the transplants.
5. Cartilage transplant and Stem cell therapies
Though complex, the Stem Cell therapy involves usage of an adult stem cell and its insertion into the pet’s fat tissue where it is allowed to grow and heal broken muscles, ligaments, tendons, and arthritis of animals. Fat is taken from an injured animal and is sent to Vet-Stem laboratory in San Diego and then sent back to the vet to be injected into the animal’s affected area.
Cartilage transplants are done similarly, by taking healthy cartilage from a part of the animal’s body and then injecting it into the affected area where it grows.
6.Heart repair
Though, open-heart surgeries are not allowed everywhere and right to perform them has been retained by only a few universities and hospitals, these surgeries can stop the heart for one to two hours by the use of cardiopulmonary heart-lung bypass machine. The surgery can save lives of pets by solving the common defect of leaking heart valves by replacing defective valves in the heart with the tissue of a cow or pig. The surgery may take long as it is complex, and can therefore, last for as long as five to six hours. Also, pacemakers can be used to revitalize a dog’s heart. PDA (Patent Ductus Arteriosus) is a congenital disease that affects small poodles and German Shepherds most commonly. They can be treated by the use of catheters or stainless steel fiber-embedded coils inserted into the diseased hole, thereby blocking the hole and preventing blood from flowing out.
