Wildlife blog of Dr. Palazzolo and the Long Beach Animal Hospital

Dog Fractured Tibia (shinbone)

Carl Palazzolo2024-08-13T10:37:33-07:00April 10th, 2020|Current News|

Some canine fractures are so severe they require the expertise of a specialist in bone surgery. We have a specialist in bone surgery that will come to our hospital and perform the repair in dogs, cats, and other species like this rabbit. This has several advantages, not the least of which it costs less than if we refer the repair to a surgical specialist at a referral hospital. This is a severe fracture, and a dog with this problem is very painful and can go into shock. This is a medical emergency requiring immediate veterinary care. The Long Beach Animal

Bladder Stones in Cats: Causes, Symptoms, & Treatment

Carl Palazzolo2025-04-11T09:24:43-07:00April 10th, 2020|Cats|

Introduction Stones in the urinary tract (kidneys, ureters, and urinary bladder) are common in cats. Even though cats do get kidney stones, it is bladder stones that cause more problems. The medical terms for bladder stones are urolithiasis or cystic calculi. We will use stone, calculi, and urolith synonymously in this page. The two most common calculi are calcium oxalate and struvite. Diet plays a big role in this problem in cats. Stones can also occur in the kidneys, where they are called nephroliths. This page will limit its discussion to stones in the bladder. Towards the end of the

Dog and Cat Cancer in Animals

Carl Palazzolo2024-10-05T14:12:06-07:00April 8th, 2020|Cats, Dogs, Rabbit|

Introduction The scientific word for cancer is neoplasia, meaning new growth. In reality, it is an abnormal growth of cells that interferes with an organ's ability to function, resulting in a degree of failure in that organ. Some of these abnormal cells break off from the organ and spread to other organs in the body, causing them to fail. This process is called metastasis, and is the hallmark of malignant cancer. Later in this page are links to pages with details on the more common cancers in animals. This includes dogs and cats, canines and feline, along with birds and

Caesarian C-Section

Carl Palazzolo2024-08-06T07:34:26-07:00April 7th, 2020|Dogs, General|

This page has two C-section (Caesarian) surgeries on it. This first one you come to when you scroll down was performed recently, the one further down the page was performed by Dr. Palazzolo 20 years ago. It was posted on this web site in 1999. A Caesarean Section (abbreviated as C-Section) is derived from the latin word "caedare", which means to cut. It is believed that Julius Caesar was the first to be born this way when his mother died during childbirth. Most scholars of ancient history believe this was done long before Julius Caesar was born. Either way, the

Tortoise Bladder Stone Pre-femoral Surgery

Carl Palazzolo2024-10-10T16:27:09-07:00April 5th, 2020|Reptile|

Introduction California Desert Tortoises get bladder stones. Sometimes the bladder stones are small, and we can use a surgical approach called pre-femoral. This is done on the inside of one of the back legs. It is far less traumatic than cutting the shell, and is the preferred method to remove a stone when it is small. That is the surgical approach that will be on this page. This is called a Tortoise Bladder Stone Pre-femoral Surgery. Most tortoise urinary bladder stones have been present for an extended period of time and are large. This necessitates cutting into the bottom shell