Anesthesia and monitoring
Sedation or general anesthesia is often required to perform certain procedures: surgery, dental cleaning and tooth extractions, wound therapy, casting or grooming. Our doctors and technicians are highly trained to provide the safest in anesthetic administration and monitoring. Multiple steps are taken to provide the best care in these situations:
- Pre-operative laboratory analysis — All of our patients have blood drawn prior to anesthesia to ensure that their system can handle anesthesia and surgery. For your convenience, this can be done on the day of the procedure.
- Pre-op physical — Our doctors perform a physical on your pet before she undergoes anesthesia with particular attention paid to cardiac and lung function.
- I.V. fluid therapy — All patients receive IV fluids during the procedure. This insures that their blood pressure stays up and that their organs have proper blood flow.
- Analgesia — All patients receive pre-op pain medication which relieves stress and makes post-op pain management much easier. The medications are chosen specifically for each patient based on the procedure to be performed.
- Monitoring — Every anesthetized patient has a technician assigned to monitor their vitals throughout the procedure. We also monitor heart rate and rhythm with ECG and blood oxygen concentration using pulse oxymetry.