Cats and dogs injured in car accidents will benefit from a surgical breakthrough after vets in Hua Hin carried out the world's first urethra graft operation on an animal.
Veterinary Teaching Hospital vets perform the new procedure. LAMPHAI INTATHEP
The Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Prachuap Khiri Khan province performed the buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty last Tuesday.
The operation restores the urinary tract of an animal, enabling it to pass urine and live a normal life.
Wanchart Yippaditr, a hospital veterinarian, said many dogs and cats involved in car accidents in Thailand suffer a broken pelvis. This injury can also damage their urethra.
He said the animals are normally given bypass surgery, which allows urine to be discharged directly from the bladder through an opening in the stomach.
But the operation often causes post-surgery complications.
Common complications include incontinence, narrowing of the urethra and infections that can spread and cause kidney failure in the worst cases.
"These animals need special care. Some owners have no choice but to put them down to spare them pain.
"This prompted us to seek a better procedure to give them back a normal life," he said.
Vets chose to use buccal mucosa, otherwise known as the inside lining of the cheek, for the graft because it is flexible and tolerant to moisture, Dr Wanchart said.
The graft is usually around 2-3 centimetres in diameter and the surgery takes just a few hours.
Pets are required to stay in hospital for 14 days to recover, he said.
Dr Wanchart said five dogs and one cat have undergone the surgical procedure so far, which costs 8,000 baht.
One of the dogs was from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"This is the first time in the world that buccal mucosal graft urethroplasty has successfully been performed to help dogs and cats," Dr Wanchart said.
Hospital director Khongsak Thiangtum said his vets would continue conducting research in pursuit of their goal of becoming Asia's veterinary education hub.
The Princess Chulabhorn International Conference Centre is being constructed inside the hospital compound to serve as an international centre for veterinary education in the region.
The work on the centre is now 30% complete.
The Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Hua Hin is one of four animal hospitals connected to Kasetsart University.
Kasetsart University rector Wuttichai Kapilakarn said the university’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is one of the best in Thailand and produces around 100 veterinary graduates each year.
"The Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Hua Hin is first-rate. It already may be the leading veterinary hospital in Asean," he said.
Apinan Suprasert, dean of the Veterinary Medicine Faculty, said the department is preparing itself for the Asean economic community in 2015 by introducing a credit transfer programme for Asean students who wish to come and study there.
The faculty is also organising an Asean veterinary student volunteer project.
The initiative will encourage better understanding of the veterinary profession among member countries.
"We want to promote friendship and build a network of those involved in the veterinary profession in Asean," he said.
