Does anyone know of any providers that offer gastroplexy surgery? My vet office can do it, but she hasn't done one in a long time.
I am looking to change my vet because it is 40 minutes away and the reason we went there, a great country vet who did leg surgeries on my Rottweiler, retired and they just have these younger vets.
I have a great small animal practice vet, who has handled all our dogs for twenty years, and has young vets who come in and do work, as I imagine many others do until they are established.
I know my main vets expertise and trust his process. He is booked weeks ahead or may be out of office in a short term need so I invested time in finding a backup, in extremis and second opinions, from a "dobe expert".
I notice the trend towards vets being bought out as part of big chains...
So the trick is "how to find the dobe expert vet"...You can look on DPCA breeder referral, ask them, or if non closeby, try the DPCA Rescue referral, or if non closeby-
Try Goolag search,
Or do what I did:
Go on FakeBook and look for local or regional groups of dobe owners and read those to gauge how experienced the group,
And then asked "who is the best most experienced in dobes" vet in x,y,z locale.
Once I got 3 or 4 hits on same name,
I then visited the vet office, interviewed the front desk, and vets "how many dobes?"
And "do you do (tack n spay, obstruction surgery, etc) vs send out to surgical specialty (and where) and ask "do you check for vWD before surgery (a given for dobes).
And what tests do you recommend yearly (should be echo, holter, thyroid...liver blood tests will show copper storage disease;
once a year)
"Do you rent out your own holters, or "to where do you refer owners to?"
It may be worth it to simply do a wellness check to establish a client relationship with the vet, so you can shop prescriptions meds from that vet or online.
Get Pet Insurance on your pup before "pre-existing conditions" pop up and are excluded.
Get a Wisdom or Embark or VGL panel on your pup, if you are curious about gene markers for DCM, CSD, etc. Those are not proof if absent, or a guarantee they will get it...just interesting for breeders.
Thats all I got. DCPA had a couple good seminars for "health plan" on their educational section, free to non members, end of 2024. You can find them on youtube.
Thats all I got, from a careful family pet owners perspective.
