Community Animal HospitalsGuided by AAHA standards · St. Petersburg, FL
Community Animal HospitalsGuided by AAHA standards · St. Petersburg, FL
If your pet has just been hurt, come in for an exam and x-rays. Fracture repair — plates, pins and screws — is done by a veterinary orthopedic surgeon in our own surgical suite in St. Petersburg. Before any work begins you receive a written, itemized estimate.
Just hurt? Keep your pet as still as you can and bring them in. A pet in pain may bite, even a gentle one — handle carefully, and bring a cat in a carrier.
We are closed right now. If your pet has just been hurt, go to a 24-hour emergency hospital. Fracture repair can often be done here once your pet is stable.
If your pet has just been hurt, calling is faster. If you already have x-rays or a diagnosis, tell us here and we’ll get back to you.
An exam, pain relief and x-rays. A pet with a broken leg after a fall or a car accident may have other injuries that matter more, so the whole pet is examined first, not just the leg. The x-rays are taken here, on our own digital equipment, and show exactly where the bone is broken and how.
Some fractures are stabilised with a splint or bandage first and repaired once your pet is ready for surgery. Others are repaired sooner. The veterinarian will tell you which, and why.
Femur, tibia, radius and ulna, and the smaller bones — plated, pinned or screwed depending on the break.
Including a sacroiliac luxation, the separation that often follows a road accident.
Which need their own approach.
Young bones heal quickly, and the repair has to allow for a bone that is still growing.
During our open hours, walk-ins are seen — there may be a wait. Calling ahead lets us know you are coming.
On our own digital x-ray equipment, the same visit. The x-rays show what the exam cannot.
For all proposed diagnostics and treatment, before any work begins.
If surgery is the answer, it is done in our own surgical suite. Rechecks and suture removal are included.
A veterinary orthopedic surgeon operates at Community Animal Hospitals, in our own surgical suite. Our own team looks after your pet before and after — the same people you would see for anything else.
Questions about the surgery itself are answered by the orthopedic surgeon. They usually come through one of our own doctors first, who knows your pet’s history and brings the surgeon in.
No referral needed. If your veterinarian has already taken x-rays, bring them, email them to petcare@communityanimalhospitals.com, or tell us on the form who has them and we will request them for you.
A one-year-old cat weighing 4.8 pounds. Both bones of the forearm were broken near the wrist.
A real patient treated at one of our hospitals. Identifying details have been removed.
It depends on the break. Which bone, how many pieces, and what it takes to hold them decide the surgery, and that is not fully known until the x-rays — sometimes not until surgery. You receive a written, itemized estimate for all proposed diagnostics and treatment before any work begins.
You receive a written, itemized estimate for all proposed diagnostics and treatment before any work begins. You will never get a bill you have not approved. If we find something unexpected during surgery, we call you before doing anything about it.
Many of our clients find that financing part or all of the procedure through Cherry works best for them.
According to Cherry, the application takes under 35 seconds from start to finish, and “Cherry performs a soft credit check which does not affect your credit score.”
Check your options with Cherry
We also accept CareCredit and Scratch Pay.
Most people are less worried about the procedure than about the anesthesia. That is a fair worry, and it deserves a straight answer.
Pre-anesthetic bloodwork tells us how your pet’s liver and kidneys will handle the anesthetic drugs. It is also how we catch the problem that changes the plan — before we start, not during.
The catheter means immediate access to a vein if we need it, rather than looking for one in an emergency. Fluids maintain blood pressure, which is what protects the kidneys under anesthesia.
A trained technician is assigned to your pet’s anesthesia and does nothing else for the duration — heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen, blood pressure, temperature and breathing, continuously, with hands on your pet.
Anesthetised animals lose heat quickly, and a cold patient recovers badly — slower waking, more shivering, more pain. Active warming runs through the procedure and into recovery. It is unglamorous and it matters.
Almost never, and age by itself is not the reason to decline. In the largest study of US primary-care practice — 822 hospitals — the anesthetic death rate was 0.05% in dogs and 0.11% in cats. What moves that number is health status, not age: in sick patients it rises roughly twenty-five fold. Which is why what we do before the procedure matters more than the number on the birthday.
Bloodwork, a physical examination, and a plan built around what we find. If something turns up that changes the risk, we tell you before the day, not after.
AAHA’s 2023 senior care guidelines: “Advanced age alone is not a contraindication to general anesthesia.”
We do not provide overnight care. For most procedures your pet goes home the same day — home is quieter, and you are the person who notices first when something is not right. You will go home with written aftercare instructions and a number to call if anything worries you.
If your pet does need overnight monitoring, we will say so and refer you to a 24-hour facility that can give it. That is a judgment made on the day, about your pet — not a policy.
Most pets go home wearing a cone (an e-collar) so they cannot lick or chew at the incision while it heals.
Recheck visits and suture removal are included in the surgery price.
Questions after you get home go to us — six days a week, 7:30am–6:30pm.
5895 54th Ave N, St. Petersburg, FL 33709
Clients travel as far as 15–20 miles for surgery with us, from St. Petersburg · Gulfport · Pinellas Park · Seminole · Bardmoor · Tyrone Square · South Pasadena · Kenneth City · Lealman and beyond · Open 7:30am–6:30pm, six days a week
It depends on which bone is broken and how. After the exam and x-rays you receive a written, itemized estimate before any work begins.
No. Some can heal in a splint or cast. Many leg fractures in dogs and cats heal better with surgery. The x-rays decide it.
Usually not. If hardware causes a problem later, removing it is a smaller procedure than placing it.
Yes. Injuries to the chest and belly can be hidden at first. Come in during our open hours, or go to a 24-hour emergency hospital if we are closed.
Go to a 24-hour emergency hospital. They can stabilize the fracture and give your pet pain relief. Ask them to send us the x-rays and records — the orthopedic surgeon reviews them, and we call you with a written estimate and a date for the repair here.