Gastropexy Vet: NOVA, Fauquier county

[TuckeredOut]

Hi all,

It is that time for my boy, to get his neuter and pexy surgery done; and I would appreciate any and all suggestions. I have looked at the other threads, but none specifically say the name of the vet and practice where they have had the surgeries done. And many of them seem to be recommendations for the regular vet. (?)

All of the vets that are local to me have no experience in this area and really don't have any suggestions of where to go . I have also looked online, through yelp, etc., but that didn't get me very far either.

My candidates so far are:

http://vavetspecialists.com/

-they are specialists, however, and although they will do the pexy, (Laparoscopy version), I don't know if they will also do the neuter. They have two locations, and are 1.5 and 2.5 hours from me.

and

Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

-the link above is from a lady that had her dogs done in 2006; very informative (and by a DOL member); I am currently leaning towards this route. This is located 3.5 hours from me.


Please Help! and thank-you in advance!

[TuckeredOut]

Anyone? Please....

[Angel7292]

How about trying your local GD club and seeing if they have any recommendations? I don't live in VA, but figured I'd point you in this direction.

[TuckeredOut]

Angel,

Thank you for the suggestion, but best I can tell, there is no local GD club. I have emailed the Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League, but they are large and volunteer based, so unsure if I will get a reply.

I unfortunately do not have the support of a breeder since he was a rescue and he originally came from New York; I am new to the area, so do not have an established relationship with a vet.

I just feel like I have little/no direction in this area; I wonder if this is the same for everyone on here...

[Angel7292]

Ya know what, if you don't mind the drive and an overnight stay, I would suggest Dr. Briggs. He is a vet that frequents DOL and does a lot of lap gastropexy surgeries. If I lived anywhere in the region, I would have sought him out to do Phineas. He is in NJ. Not too far of a drive for a vet you want to feel confident in and an overnight stay. Dr. Briggs specializes in lap surgeries and has a tremendous amount of experience with gastropexy surgeries.

Here is his web site link: http://www.ocvh.com/

What I did was ask my regular vet. He had zero experience in preventative pexys but instead did a lot of emergency ones. We talked about it and both he and the other vet in the office discussed. Both felt extremely confident in doing the pexy and said they wouldn't offer unless they were. They offered me a list of surgeons but I felt the best care my dog was going to get was at the hands of my regular vet. However, we've been using this vet for at least 20 years.

You just need to interview them. Look for general surgeons in your area, not so much a regular vet.

[TuckeredOut]

Thank you again, Angel. I will look into that as an option (he is "only" 4ish hours away from me depending on traffic). And you are right about looking for a surgeon versus a vet that does these types of surgeries. My language when performing online searches for such a vet is probably not helping my search . I didn't think of that, so thanks again .

[Angel7292]

If you go to search in the blue bar and then advanced search, you can search by users (either all posts or posts started by them). His DOL userid is BriggsDVM.

If it were my dog and I only lived 4 hours away, I'd be speaking to Dr. Briggs about the surgery. I think You will find he is VERY dane experienced and does lap gastropexys. He posts quite a bit about it here on DOL.

Other then that... that's all I got for you. Wishing you much luck!!

[spartansmom]

Have you looked into Great Falls Animal Hospital?
I trust them with anything as long as it's Dr. Henshaw! All of the vets there are awesome but I love Dr. Henshaw and he is who the MAGDRL had suggested to me while back!