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Metzler Veterinary Hospital

Vet holding a small dog on an exam table

Dr. Dorian

Here at Metzler Veterinary Hospital, our surgical team provides comprehensive, and excellent surgical care at affordable prices. Even complex orthopedic procedures, such as TPLOs, are affordable, and usually cost only $2500.

Dr. Dorian's Experience

Dr. Dorian Lara has had years of advanced surgical training, and many years of experience to ensure your beloved pet receives the best care possible during and after complex procedures. In addition, Dr. Metzler and our other veterinarians, also perform various surgeries to ensure your pets can receive the surgical care they need.

Dr. Dorian has years of experience performing TPLOs (for cruciate ligament (ACL/CCL ruptures) in addition to fracture (broken bone) stabilization and splinting. Other orthopedic procedures such as medially luxating patella (MPL) correction, femoral head ostectomies (FHO/FHNO), and surgery for luxations (dislocations) are also frequently performed here at Metzler Veterinary Hospital.

Dr. Dorian, with his training and experience, is also skilled to perform more complex soft tissue surgeries such as total ear canal ablations (TECABO), skin grafts/flaps, abdominal mass removals (such as splenectomies), extrahepatic portosystemic shunts (liver shunts), along with numerous procedures not mentioned here.

An old Golden Retriever is getting anesthesia before surgery.  One of the veterinarians is placing their hands over the dogs eyes on a medical table.

Soft Tissue Surgery

Soft Tissue Surgery is any surgery non-joint or bone related and can include ear, nose and throat, cardio-thoracic, hepatic, gastrointestinal, urogenital, skin reconstructive, and oncological surgeries. Common soft tissue surgeries include mass removals, cystotomy (surgery of the bladder), and foreign body removal (when an item is stuck in the stomach/intestines). However, these are only a small example of the surgeries we can do here.

Dr. Dorian performing surgery in OR Room

Orthopedic Surgery

Orthopedic Surgery is surgery of the bones and joints. These surgeries can be very demanding and require not only advanced equipment but adherence to the strictest aseptic (sterile) technique. Individual, specially-ordered, sterile drape kits and surgical gowns are required for each case. While we hope your pet is never injured, a large inventory of high-quality surgical implants (bone plates, screws, bone cement, bone grafting material, etc.) is kept on hand at all times to handle most orthopedic injuries.

Veterinarian Helping a Dog with an Injured Leg

We practice multi-modal analgesia to manage pain during and after surgery. This means that a variety of pain-controlling drugs are administered to treat multiple parts of the pain pathway. During more invasive surgical cases, a special cocktail of drugs is made to be given intravenously to provide very strong, safe, and effective pain control. The better we treat pain as it happens, the faster your pet will recover. We also always provide pain-relieving drugs post-operatively to help your pet recover at home.

We understand the stress that comes with a pet undergoing surgery. All pets are closely monitored during their procedures (heart rate, blood oxygenation, ECG, blood pressure, CO2 concentration)  to ensure a safe anesthetic episode.