Dr. Phil Zeltzman’s Blog
Labrador with laryngeal paralysis hits the road to recovery
They say that a journey begins with a single step, but sometimes that step is into your car so you can drive five hours for a scheduled surgery!
Hershey’s owner drove all the way from Jamestown, New York near Lake Erie so I could perform surgery at Barton Heights Veterinary Hospital in Pennsylvania. It was quite the road trip.
Hershey is an eleven-year-old Lab whose laryngeal paralysis made it difficult for him to breathe. A complicating factor is that he’s diabetic. Hershey’s vet was not sure that surgery was the best bet, but his owner loves Hershey and wasn’t ready to give up on her best friend.
You can see a video of Hershey and his surgery below. He struggles to breathe before the surgery, but after we perform a “tie back” procedure there’s a nice, wide opening. This lets oxygen get in. A tie back surgery uses nylon sutures to keep one side of the larynx open. Two hours after surgery, you can hear the difference! There’s no more struggling and just nice quiet breathing.
You can also see that a small tumor on Hershey’s eyelid was removed. That is a benign tumor called a chalazion, or an adenoma of a Meibomian gland.
Hershey spent a restful night at Barton Heights, and left the hospital for a five hour drive home!
Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a traveling veterinary surgeon in Pennsylvania & New Jersey. An award-winning author, he loves to share his adventures in practice along with information about vet medicine and surgery that can really help your pets. Dr. Zeltzman specializes in orthopedic, neurologic, cancer, and soft tissue surgeries for dogs, cats, and small exotics. By working with local family vets, he offers the best surgical care, safest anesthesia, and utmost pain management to all his patients. Sign up to get an email when he updates his blog, and follow him on Facebook, too!
What simple surgery can prevent heartache for you and your pet?
Beautiful Babette came into the veterinarian when her owner noticed mass under the skin of the belly.
She had several mammary tumors that needed removal at South Mountain Veterinary Hospital.
Before we removed any of the masses, we spayed her. During surgery, a mass was noticed on the spleen, so we obtained the owner’s permission to remove the spleen. Finally, we removed the mammary masses.
Babette recovered quickly from anesthesia and went home the same day. One week later, the biopsies came back as entirely benign! The mammary masses were adenomas and the spleen mass was lymphoid hyperplasia.
Babette’s guardian says, “Babette is feeling great, she seems 6 years younger!”
The mammary masses may have have been totally prevented if Babette had been spayed before the first heat cycle. Her owners didn’t know and felt terribly guilty. Thankfully Babette’s story had a happy ending, but remember spaying and neutering pets is the best option for their health!
 The masses are visible on Babette’s belly. |
 The adenoma removed from the spleen. |
Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a traveling veterinary surgeon in Pennsylvania & New Jersey. An award-winning author, he loves to share his adventures in practice along with information about vet medicine and surgery that can really help your pets. Dr. Zeltzman specializes in orthopedic, neurologic, cancer, and soft tissue surgeries for dogs, cats, and small exotics. By working with local family vets, he offers the best surgical care, safest anesthesia, and utmost pain management to all his patients. Sign up to get an email when he updates his blog, and follow him on Facebook, too!
Senior cat’s mystery weight loss solved – and fixed!
Baxter is a handsome, 15 year old cat who was losing weight even though he had a 
healthy appetite.
He was diagnosed with or hyperactive thyroid glands, also called hyperthyroidism. I removed both thyroid glands during surgery.
The biopsy revealed that the glands contained cysts and an adenoma, or benign tumor.
Despite being 15 years old, Baxter recovered very well. Surgery on senior pets should be considered very carefully, but it can definitely be worthwhile!
You can see the bulge in Baxter’s throat in the pre-op photo, and below you can see the glands we removed.
Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a traveling veterinary surgeon in Pennsylvania & New Jersey. An award-winning author, he loves to share his adventures in practice along with information about vet medicine and surgery that can really help your pets. Dr. Zeltzman specializes in orthopedic, neurologic, cancer, and soft tissue surgeries for dogs, cats, and small exotics. By working with local family vets, he offers the best surgical care, safest anesthesia, and utmost pain management to all his patients. Sign up to get an email when he updates his blog, and follow him on Facebook, too!