The surgical patient is placed under general anesthesia and secured to the surgical table on her back (dorsal recumbency). The hair in the surgical area (ventral neck) is removed with clippers. The surgical area is then cleaned several times with two different disinfecting solutions. The white tape is placed on the cat's chin to stabilize its head. The red line indicates where the surgical incision will be made through the skin of the patient's neck.

The surgical area is surrounded by sterile drapes and secured to the skin with four towel clamps. Again, the red line indicates where the skin incision will be made.

After making the initial incision through the skin over the patient's trachea, the underlying muscles are gently separated. The abnormally enlarged right thyroid gland is located just to the right of the trachea. In this photo the thyroid gland is exteriorized and indicated by the red arrow.

Small blood vessels are ligated at either end of the thyroid gland (red arrow). In this photo the vessels at the cranial end (toward the head) have been ligated with sterile absorbable suture material. The same procedure will be used to ligate the vessels at the caudal end (toward the tail) of the gland.

The now excised enlarged thyroid gland. The red arrow indicates the external parathyroid gland at the cranial end of the thyroid gland. The external parathyroid gland will be transplanted back into the patient. The internal parathyroid gland is located within the thyroid gland towards the opposite end.

The external parathyroid gland (blue arrow) has been dissected from the thyroid gland in preparation for transplantation.

A pocket is created within the muscles of the cat's neck in the general vicinity of the excised thyroid gland. The blue arrow indicates the excised parathyroid gland placed in this newly created pocket. The pocket is closed around the transplanted parathyroid gland with sterile absorbable suture material.

The muscles of the cat's neck are sutured with sterile absorbale suture material. The blue arrows indicate the ends of the incision.

The skin is closed with the same absorbable suture material with all knots buried beneath the skin. Again, the blue arrows indicate the ends of the incision.

The patient is recovered from anesthesia following surgery. The blue arrow points to the endotracheal tube which delivers the anesthetic gas and oxygen to the patient's lungs.