The Daily News asked Dottie Brown, chief of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and Rebecka Hess, the school's chief of medicine, to take our readers on an anatomical tour of the latest in veterinary science. The fantastic voyage:
TEETH. Veterinary dentists can perform root canals to save dogs' teeth and install crowns to reconstruct them — typically for police dogs and other working dogs, since family pets can often manage just fine if they lose a few teeth.
EYES. Researchers are now using gene therapy to reverse a genetic form of blindness in Labrador retrievers. Other breeds and humans could follow.
HEAD AND NECK. In the event of disfiguring accidents or cancers, veterinary surgeons can reconstruct a jaw using pieces of other bones, like a dog's fibula (one of the bones in the calf) or a rib.
THROAT AND DIGESTIVE TRACT. A thin, lighted tube with a viewfinder, called a gastroscope, lets vets retrieve swallowed tennis balls, rubber bands, chew toys, bones, balloons and so forth from the stomach and esophagus without doing invasive surgery.
STOMACH. Veterinary surgeons can operate laparoscopically— again, using a thin, lighted tube — to help prevent bloat in canine breeds like Great Danes and standard poodles that are prone to that potentially fatal twisting of the stomach.
The procedure involves tying the dog's stomach to its abdominal wall. Typically, it's only done if a patient is already having surgery for some other reason.
WOMB. Dogs and cats can also be spayed using minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. In dogs, the incision is about 3/4 of an inch. Recovery can be quicker than it would be after traditional abdominal surgery.
HEART. The FDA has approved a new medicine called Vetmedin (previously available abroad but not here) that can help dogs with heart disease live an extra six to 12 months and enjoy a better quality of life.
Surgically, a minimally invasive procedure called a balloon valvuloplasty uses a catheter to open up heart valves that have been narrowed by congenital defects.
SPINE. In dachshunds, spaniels and other breeds prone to ruptured discs, MRIs can help veterinarians diagnose problems and pinpoint where to operate if surgery is needed.
An operation called a laminectomy can decompress the spinal cord and help disabled dogs walk again.
SKIN. New, improved immunotherapy agents, including allergy shots and medications, can be used instead of steroids to help relieve itching from allergic skin disease.
JOINTS. Acupuncture is now being used to treat arthritis pain in dogs' hips, shoulders, knees and elbows. The FDA has also approved several prescription medicines for arthritis pain.
Physical therapy using underwater treadmills can also offer relief.
In an interesting arthritis research project that's now under way at Penn Vet, Brown is asking owners to help gauge how much pain their pet is in by watching for subtle clues at home.
KIDNEYS. Kidney transplants for cats are complicated but usually successful, although the upfront costs — about $15,000 — and the aftercare are burdensome. The kidney recipient will be on anti-rejection medicine for life, and the cat's owner must adopt the donor. "They go home with two cats even though they started with one," Brown says.
Penn's Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital in West Philly performed its first canine kidney transplant last summer with a pioneering pair of sheepdogs named Willy (the kidney recipient) and Tilly (the donor — and Willy's mom).
HIPS. Surgeons can do total hip replacements for arthritic dogs. (Cats don't tend to need them.) Elbow and knee replacements are just starting to become available.
Minimally-invasive arthroscopic surgery can sometimes be used to remove flaps of cartilage from injured or faulty joints.
LEGS. A new way to treat bone-cancer pain in dogs whose cancer can't be cured is to inject neurotoxins (nerve poisons) into the spinal fluid. The technique kills the nerve cells that sense pain.
PIONEERING CANCER CARE. On the way-out-there horizons of cancer medicine, Penn veterinarian Nicola Mason is experimentally using vaccines to treat a canine cancer called lymphosarcoma.
The approach, known as cancer immunotherapy, "is on the frontier of human medicine as well," Hess says. "She is leading this field of research for all species."
In dogs, lymphosarcoma can strike the lymph nodes (in the neck, groin and elsewhere) as well as the kidney, liver, lungs and digestive system.