State-of-the-art treatment for pets is the cat’s whiskers

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When James Dunne talks about his patients who need orthopaedic treatment, including hip replacements, physiotherapy and maybe even hydrotherapy, he isn’t referring to human beings.

Instead, James, one of the vets in Galway City’s well-known Ark Veterinary Clinic, is talking about small animals – mostly dogs.

It might seem a bit strange to hear dogs and cats referred to as ‘patients’ but as James asks rhetorically, “what else would you call them?”.

“A person’s dog or cat is a member of their family and I’m not sure what else you’d refer to them as,” he says.

From toothpaste to peanut butter treats and cups to weigh their food, everything you could want for the dog or cat in your life is available in the reception area of Ark in Knocknacarra.

And beyond reception, there’s more, much more. In addition to its many other services, Ark is one of just a few practices in Ireland offering hip replacements for animals with problems such as arthritis, when other treatments, including anti-inflammatories and pain killers have failed.

These cutting-edge orthopaedic procedures are carried out by James, who has specialised in that area. They are followed up with physio from chartered physiotherapist Suzanne Costello, who treats humans during the week.

James’s veterinary colleague in the Knocknacarra premises is Aidan Miller, who specialises in treating pets with heart problems and issues relating to skin and internal organs.

Ark is one of the best-known veterinary practices in Galway, having been established in 1976 by David FitzGerald and Séamus McManus in the city’s St Mary’s Road.

Over the decades Ark began to outgrow its St Mary’s Road accommodation and in 2010 it opened this new facility while retaining the original premises.

The Knocknacarra practice has three veterinary nurses and a receptionist as well as two vets. In this place where animals are king there is no shortage of space – and a range of machines that any human hospital would be proud of.

These include top class X-ray machines, scanners, anaesthetic machines, dentistry facilities and examination tables with inbuilt weighing facilities. There is a lab for blood samples and there are two operating theatres for animals needing treatment. One of these is reserved for orthopaedic surgery only, and has a filtered air system, to ensure optimum hygiene.

“Bone and joint surgery is the cleanest surgery and it’s best to keep it to a room that isn’t exposed to other operations,” says James, as he gives a guided tour of the premises, explaining that the most sterile rooms are farthest away from the public space.

James, who was reared in Bushypark on the outskirts of G

alway City, had never intended to focus on small-animal practice when he was training at veterinary college in Dublin.

But in 1998 he took a job in England in a small animal practice, with 25 vets, where he worked for six years. It was there he developed an interest in surgery. “I spent a number of years working for a very experienced surgeon and learned new techniques from him.”

In his final three years there, James worked fulltime in orthopaedic surgery.

When Ark contacted him about joining them, he and his English-born wife Alison, a pharmacist, decided to relocate to Galway.

“As a student I had seen practice with them and liked their approach. Their standards are high,” he says simply.

Ark’s interest in cutting-edge orthopaedic surgery for animals is not new.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.