All patients undergoing general anesthesia are monitored by a registered veterinary technician as well as an anesthestic monitoring system. During procedures, we are monitoring patient heart rate, oxygen levels, respirations, body temperature as well as blood pressure and ECG. Technicians are with your pet from the begining of anesthesia all the way to recovery to make sure they are well cared for and safe.
Many pet owners worry about their pet(s) under going general anesthesia. We can assure you that modern anesthesia is generally quite safe, although there are always risks involved with any type of anesthesia or sedation. We take every precaution, we are allowed, to insure your pet’s safety during anesthesia. Before any surgery, we perform a thorough physical exam and place an intravenous(IV) catheter. The IV catheter allows us to have quick, available access to the circulatory system in case of an unforeseen emergency and/or to deliver fluids, if needed.
In order to deliver the safest, optimum levels of anesthesia, we use a combination of pre-anesthetic medications/injectable and/or inhalant anesthetics. Shorter procedures that require minimum sedation are done using an injectable anesthetic which is given alone. This still gives a proper plane of anesthesia for the procedure, but allows for faster recovery.
Most surgical procedures require general anesthesia. Once your pet is anesthetized, we intubate them (placement of a breathing tube into the trachea/wind pipe). This is done in order to deliver a combination of oxygen and gas anesthetics at proper amounts at all times during the surgery. We follow a specific anesthesia protocol based on your pet’s needs. A registered veterinary technician monitors vital signs manually. In addition, we use an anesthetic monitoring system to ensure the safety of our patients throughout the entire procedure.
PRE-ANESTHETIC BLOODWORK
Our greatest concern is the well being of your pet. We recommend performing pre-anesthetic bloodwork on every pet going under general anesthesia. The pre-anesthetic bloodwork helps alert our surgeon to the prescence of dehydration, anemia, infection, underlying organ dysfunction or metabolic problems that could complicate the procedure and compromise your pet’s safety.
Although always recommended, we do not require pre anesthetic bloodwork until a patient is age 8 years or older, and the pre-anesthetic bloodwork must be within 30 days of the procedure.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about pre-anesthetic bloodwork, general anesthesia, or the procedure for which your pet is scheduled.
If your pet is having a minor surgical or diagnostic procedure performed, we sometimes use a local anesthetic to help control pain. For example, when we perform a biopsy (in which a small portion of tissue is surgically removed so it can be examined), we often use a local anesthetic. Local anesthetics cause a loss of sensation in the area where the procedure is being performed. We sometimes use a sedative in combination with the local anesthetic to keep pets calm during a procedure.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your pet receiving local anesthesia or about the procedure for which your pet is scheduled.
