The UC Davis veterinary hospital’s Community Surgery Service is once again accepting small animal patients from the community, as opposed to its shelter-only policy of the past two years.

The service is distinct from the specialty surgery services at the hospital (Soft Tissue Surgery Service and Orthopedic Surgery Service) and serves as an opportunity for the School of Veterinary Medicine’s fourth-year students to gain a greater degree of hands-on surgical experience during their clinical rotations. Unlike the specialty surgery services, the Community Surgery Service offers discounted basic surgeries performed by students. UC Davis employees receive an additional 10 percent discount.

Basic surgeries offered by the Community Surgery Service include: spays/neuters, amputations, cystotomies, mass removals and hernia repairs. A complete list of surgeries and patient requirements can be found on the Community Surgery Service website.

The Community Surgery Service provides opportunities for veterinary students to perform some of the more common procedures seen in veterinary practice. For more complicated cases, surgeries are performed by the board-certified faculty surgeons in the hospital’s specialty surgery services.

All procedures performed by the Community Surgery Service are closely supervised by UC Davis faculty veterinarians. No experiments are ever conducted on patients, and no procedures are ever performed without owner consent.

Clients with small animals needing basic surgeries can contact the Community Surgery Service directly by phone, 530-752-7631, or email.