Anesthesia and Patient Monitoring

Anesthesia does carry some risk with it. To minimize the risks we recommend and do:

Pre-anesthetic physical to assess any health risks
Pre-anesthetic blood work, mainly to assess liver and kidney function, as well as looking for possibly anemia or platelet problems
Balanced anesthesia is used, meaning we use various drugs to allow low doses of each to be used, minimizing the risk of each drug.
Isoflurane gas anesthesia is used for the majority of the surgeries. This is one of the newer anesthetics, allowing for the animal to fall asleep quickly as well as recover quickly. It is also very safe on the heart and for use on exotic pets.
Intravenous fluids are administered during anesthesia and after, if needed, to maintain blood pressures and blood flow to the kidneys
Pulse oxygen monitoring which tells us if your animal is getting enough oxygen to its organs
Blood pressure monitoring allows us to keep the animal on as low an amount of anesthesia as possible
If heart disease is suspected an EKG and/or x-rays may be recommended prior to anesthesia
A circulating hot water pad keeps your animal’s body temperature normal without any risk of burns
Pain medications are used before surgery and right at the end and during the stay to keep your pet comfortable.
After the surgery, the veterinarian and technician will monitor the recovery to ensure that it is a smooth and safe one.
Note that some of these recommendations are above the standards required for accreditation. They are not offered at every veterinary clinic.