Tacking the stomach?

[briggsdvm]

So, if we have daisy done at 6 months, as long as her stomach is placed correctly, then she might just need a second surgery later in life? If I dont pexy now, she would need that second surgery even sooner.??? She is scheduled as of now, for both on the 16th of this month. she will be 6 months a week after that.

Yikes, now I'm totally confused! My last reply was talking about if one would need to take a follow-up XRAY (NOT SURGERY) to determine stomach position - at any rate, I always try to advocate a single anesthetic event and do as much as you can at that time. You can do her OHE/OVE ("Spay") AND gastropexy at the same time. Last week I did a lap-assisted gastropexy, neuter and cherry eye all at once on a 1yo dane...
Best-

[DaisyBowman]

Right, I just want to make sure there is no harm to doing the pexy now at just 6 months. I am all for the one time anesthesia also, but it seems by the responses on here, people seem to think its to young for pex.????? I want to make sure we do this right!! I will definitely be asking if he can do the staples just for xray purposes.

[allitrvt]

Hello! I'm kind of jumping into the middle of the conversation here, but I might have some insight. I am a registered veterinary technician, and also a Dane owner. I'll give you what information I have, maybe it will help. I had Pepper's pexy done at the time of her spay, which albeit, included a longer incision to gain proper access to the stomach itself, but it was worth it to do the whole procedure then. The DVM at the clinic I worked at who performed the gastropexy used a surgical laser to create a roughening of the most superficial layers of both the stomach and the abdominal wall, in the location where the stomach would be tacked, to basically create a better bond of the stomach to the wall, beyond the sutures themselves. She then sutured NOT stapled, the sites together, using a strong suture material, so as to prevent (hopefully) any slipping. The thought process in the hospital I work prefers this approach, as opposed to the approach briggsdvm explained, that is solely their beliefs on what works best. With this method, there shouldn't be need for a second anesthesia or radiographs to check positioning. Fast forward a six weeks, Pepper truly tested her pexy, as she got loose in the kennels at work and ingested quite a number of items that should have caused her to bloat, but didn't! I am VERY happy that I did the pexy. I hope this helps you!

[briggsdvm]

[QUOTE=allitrvt;781766.... She then sutured NOT stapled, the sites together, .... With this method, there shouldn't be need for a second anesthesia or radiographs to check positioning...[/QUOTE]

Sounds great. Using a laser to create additional inflammation to help ensure a strong bond is a good approach.
As a point of clarification, staples are not used to create the adhesion, they're an (optional) marker to document the location of the pexy. There is also no need/requirement for any additional anesthesia or imaging to check positioning unless for some reason one had suspected a failure of the adhesion and subsequent torsion.
Thanks for sharing!

[DaneyBopper]

I will be doing Arkin's Pexy and Neuter at once between 6 and 9 months.
He will have full pre-anesthetic bloodwork, as well as an EKG prior to the procedure we have also asked to use sevoflurane instead of iso during.
As far as I'm concerned the benefits of doing as many surgical procedures as possible during one bout of anesthesia (so long as all possible precautions are taken to ensure the health of the animal in question) greatly outweighs the risk of a longer surgery.