Plastic surgery procedures are gaining popularity for use on pets for both cosmetic and medical reasons.
Since 1995, more than 500,000 dogs and cats have been implanted with Neuticles - a cosmetic implant of silicone to replace testicles after they are neutered, reported CBS News.
While this purely cosmetic surgery is often preformed to boost the confidence of animal owners, there are also several plastic surgeries increasingly used to help pets live a happier life.
For instance, dogs with a lot of wrinkles on their faces can be prone to getting infections on their face. One procedure, called entropion surgery, lifts the dog's eyelids to rid the face of those bacteria-catching creases, reported CBS News.
"If you had folds moved around in your skin we would call that plastic surgery. In the case of the dogs, it's a medical necessity," Dr. Ann E. Hohenhaus, a staff veterinarian at the Animal Medical Center in New York, told CBS News.
With a smaller chance of infection, the medical procedure will be beneficial to the pooch in the long run.
Another surgery, popular for dogs with small snouts, is a nose job-like procedure to help correct brachycephalic syndrome - which occurs when the roof of the mouth is too long for the length of the animal's muzzle and blocks the trachea.
With this condition, everything is smaller than usual and it's difficult to breathe.
These face lift surgeries to medically benefit dogs are often referred to as "corrective surgeries" by veterinarians because they are designed to help the animal live more comfortably.
Although these procedures are beneficial to th animals, they often cost between $4,000 and $5,000. If you're not up for shelling out that kind of money to get your animal a face lift, Dr. Jules Benson, chief veterinary medical officer at Petplan insurance, told CBS News people should get mutts instead.
"My ideal breed has always been a mutt," he said. "A medium sized dog with no weight problems or size problems."
