Recent surgeries

Laser Hobday’s procedure

As is listed lower down, standing laser Hobday’s have now replaced traditional Hobday’s procedures at Cotts. Traditional Hobday’s are still available and are just as successful as before, but in most cases owners prefer the standing procedure because general anaesthesia is avoided and there is no mucky external wound to heal up.

The procedure is carried out down the endoscope rather than via an open incision on the throat. The laser fibre vaporises and cuts tissue in contact with its end, so acts like a scalpel through the endoscope. The pictures below show the procedure being carried out recently on a case at Cotts. The left vocal cord is initially removed by making first a horizontal and then second a vertical cut. The ventricle, just on the inside of the vocal cord, is then grasped and removed in the same way.

It still takes around 5 week before horses can re-enter fast work to allow the internal wound to heal and scar up. A tiny minority of horses do not react well to the sedatives and twitch and swallow repeatedly, making laser surgery difficult and complications more likely. These horses simply move to the original traditional surgery to avoid these problems.

Because the procedure is carried out on standing sedation, horses typically recover quickly and are discharged later the same day.