Advanced Veterinary Diagnostics and Surgery - Springfield, VA
Our surgical team is led by Drs. Davis and Bowles. Dr. Davis is board-trained, having completed a dedicated surgery internship and advanced surgical training, with extensive experience across a wide range of procedures. Dr. Bowles brings strong skills from her internship and years in emergency medicine, covering both general and urgent surgical cases.
We provide attentive care before, during, and after every procedure. Most pets go home the same day with clear, detailed after-care instructions. Common surgeries include bladder stone removal, splenectomy, C-section, foreign body removal, gastropexy and other soft-tissue procedures. For more complex needs, we partner with a traveling board-certified surgeon who performs advanced surgeries on-site. If your pet requires orthopedic surgery, we can refer you to several talented specialists in our area.
Drs. Bowles and Davis are adept at surgical treatments. Dr. Bowles, due to her internship and experience as an emergency veterinarian, has a great deal of surgical skill with both general surgery and emergency surgery including foreign body removal, bladder stone surgery, splenectomy, c-section, and other soft tissue surgeries.
Comprehensive Surgical Care for Your Pet
- Surgery: Your pet will receive attentive care before, during and after surgery. In most cases, your pet will go home the same day, and you will be sent home with detailed after-care instructions. If your pet requires orthopedic surgery, we can refer you to one of several talented surgeons in our area.
- Radiology: We use Digital Radiography, so no more waiting for the x-rays to develop! We take the x-ray that we want and in seconds it is digitally processed into our state of the art cloud based system. We also consult radiologists after taking x-rays to help further diagnose your pets.
- Diagnostic Testing: With our in-house blood machines, we can run a reference laboratory quality test on a small blood sample. This takes about 20 minutes, which helps minimize stress on your pet, while greatly speeding up the diagnostic process. When more testing is required, we offer a full service reference laboratory with twice daily pick up to increase the speed with which we get important results.
- Pain Management: Our doctors will advise you about pain relief for your pet, and how to maintain your pet's good quality of life. Pain relief can be in the form of medication, physical therapy, or alternative treatments.
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Diagnostics & Surgery
FAQs
For many surgeries, we use absorbable sutures underneath the skin. These will dissolve on their own, and do not need to be removed later. Some surgeries, especially tumor removals, do require skin stitches or skin staples. Procedures involving sutures require them to be removed in 14 days following the surgery.
Today's modern anesthetic monitors have made surgery much safer than in the past. Here at Burke Forest, we do a thorough physical exam on your pet before administering anesthetics, to ensure that a fever or other illness won't be a problem. We also adjust the amount and type of anesthetic used depending on the health of your pet. The handout on anesthesia explains this in greater detail.
This is a blood test that is run here in the clinic prior to surgery. It tests the organ functions, blood counts and clotting function of your pet. The pre-anesthetic blood screening is done to assure safety during surgery and the ability to heal following surgery.
Anything that causes pain in people can be expected to cause pain in animals. Pets may not show the same symptoms of pain as people do; they usually don't whine or cry, but you can be sure they feel it. Pain medications needed will depend on the surgery performed. Major procedures require more pain relief than things like minor lacerations.