The Soft Tissue treatment team consist of a soft tissue floor nurse, a student, an intern or resident (or sometimes both) and a faculty. Interns and residents are veterinarians enrolled in specialty training programs at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine to further their experience and training.

A client liaison will escort you and your pet to an examination room. A student will take your pet’s history and perform a physical exam. The student will then escort your pet to our treatment area where the student and clinicians will discuss your pet’s case, differential diagnoses and formulate a diagnostic plan for your pet. The clinician on your pet’s case will also perform a physical exam on your pet. The treatment team will then return to discuss the diagnostic and/or treatment plan with you.

We typically reserve our receiving/appointment days for patient workups, allowing us to focus on diagnositic workups and discussing the results with our clients. The surgery (if indicated) is typically scheduled for the following day. However, if you would like more time to think about the treatment recommendations, then we will work with you to find a future date that works for you and your pet.

Elective open spay & neuter surgeries are scheduled for the afternoon of (& same day as) the appointment, barring emergencies.

The surgery team for each patient includes a faculty surgeon, a resident, a student and potentially an intern. Every surgery is directly overseen by either a surgeon-in-training, or a faculty surgeon, and all surgeries are under the supervision of a faculty surgeon.

We typically keep patients for at least one night (sometimes longer, depending on the type of surgery) to allow them to wake up quietly and provide stronger (injectable) pain medication. For this reason we strongly discourage visiting your pet the day of surgery, as your pet will be happy to see you, get excited while it might be better for them to rest after surgery.

When your pet is leaving the hospital to come home with you, we will provide you with detailed written discharge instruction for at-home-care. These include: activity restrictions, medications, what to look for in terms of your pets incision/wound/bandage, recommendations for follow up/rechecks. It will also detail the diagnostics and procedures performed during this hospital visit. We will provide you and your pet’s primary veterinarian with a copy of the discharges.

It is our intent that you will be well served and that your animal will receive the best care in the most humane and compassionate way. Our staff members are competent and caring professionals who are committed to high quality standards. If you have questions, feel free to bring them to the student or clinician on the case or, if needed, contact the Hospital Director or Hospital Administrator at 765-494-7235.

This will depend on the airway surgery correction needed (nostrils, palate, saccules) and the duration and type of other surgery. Airway surgeries can be high risk for complications upon recovery, and these risks can increase with more airway corrections, age of the pet and longer anesthesia. Generally, airway correction is prioritized over elective surgery, and this will be discussed at your visit.

Surgeries are typically scheduled the day following the appointment. The appointment itself is to meet and talk with the surgical team, where we discuss surgical options, risks associated with surgery and specific postoperative at-home care that you might need to prepare for. Our aim is to provide & discuss all the available information so you can make a decision whether you want to move forward with surgery or not. Coming in for a surgical appointment is not a commitment to move forward with surgery.

Absolutely! We are happy to see you and your pet, discuss (additional) diagnostics needed and surgical recommendations during an appointment, if you’re not sure about pursuing surgery. We will write up all information discussed in the visit summary, so you can decide at home afterwards if this is something that you want to pursue.