Anesthesia

Making sure our patients remain safe during surgery and other medical procedures is extremely important to us. Our veterinarian and veterinary technician are skilled in using anesthesia and monitoring patients to ensure their safety and provide the most comfortable experience. Anesthesia and patient monitoring vary greatly from clinic to clinic. You can be confident that we use the most effective and up-to-date protocols. The type of anesthesia we use depends on the procedure. Some require general anesthesia, while others may only call for local anesthesia. We also closely monitor every procedure, regardless of whether it’s routine or more advanced.

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For some procedures, and all surgeries, your pet will need to be administered general anesthesia so that he or she will be unconscious and not feel pain. Many pet owners worry about their pets being administered general anesthesia. We can assure you that modern anesthesia is generally quite safe; to further lower any risk, we perform a physical examination and run blood work ahead of time to catch any underlying health issues. In addition, we closely monitor your pets vital signs (heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, ECG) during the procedure, to ensure their safety.

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We begin general anesthetic procedures by administering a sedative to help the pet relax and decrease any anxiety or pain. An intravenous drug is then used to provide the level of anesthesia required to place a breathing tube into the patient’s trachea (windpipe). A gas anesthetic and oxygen are provided to the patient through the breathing tube to allow us to maintain the patient in an appropriate level of unconsciousness.