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What You Should Know when your pet needs
Anesthesia for Major Surgery
The following safety procedures are
included in the price of all surgeries at KAH
We include the following because:
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It is simply the safest and best
medical thing we can do for your pet.
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We believe that if even one pet has problems under
anesthesia it is one too many.
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We believe in only delivering the highest
standard of care and safety.
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Safety precautions that KAH takes are:
Phase 1.
Before Anesthetic:
Pre-anesthetic blood test
–A small sample of blood is taken and analyzed to evaluate the kidneys, redcell
count and white blood cell count. This simple safety measure
checks
that your pet’s organs, to see if
they are healthy enough to metabolize the anesthesia without
complications.
Physical Exam – A complete physical
examination to check their vital signs (heart, lungs, and temperature) making
sure they are in the best possible general health.
IV Catheter -
After completing a thorough physical examination, we place an intravenous
catheter into the front leg. This catheter is placed for three reasons: 1.
It is
easier on your pet to receive the induction anesthetic.
2. Your pet will receive
intravenous fluids to insure proper tissue perfusion and prevent dehydration, 3.
As a precautionary measure, so we can immediately administer life saving
medication if necessary.
Safety Monitors - As an additional
safety precaution, we monitor your pet's blood pressure, heart rate, EKG, body
temperature, Oxygen saturation of the blood, respiratory rate and depth using a
combination of computerized monitoring equipment.
Warmth and Comfort - For your pets
comfort and safety they will be placed on a thermal barrier to help maintain
their body temperature. For long procedures we have specially designed,
continuously circulating warm water blankets to keep them warm and comfortable.
Human Monitoring –
despite having state of the art computerized monitoring equipment nothing
replaces constant human observation. Besides the veterinary surgeon there is always a
veterinary assistant present to personally monitor your pets vital signs as well
as monitor the level of anesthesia and equipment.
Veterinary Assistant, Sue constantly
monitors the computer screen and the patient itself.
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Pre-anesthesia & pain control
- We first administer a
tranquilizer and
pain relief medication that makes your pet sleepy, reduces anxiety and allows us
to reduce the dose of general anesthetic required. This helps prevent the “Pain
before it starts” and makes the procedure safer, less stressful and your pet
recovers smoothly from the general anesthetic.
Phase 2.
General Anesthesia and the Surgical Procedure:
General Anesthesia - We only use
Propofol anesthesia for beginning anesthesia or
for short procedures. This agent is the most
expensive but also the safest agent ever used in Veterinary Medicine. It gives
smooth quick induction and rapid recovery without a hangover. For procedures
longer than 10 minutes your pet is maintained under general anesthetic with Isoflurane gas to keep them asleep. Isoflurane is a very safe anesthetic gas
which allows rapid changes in the level of anesthesia.
Phase 3.
After
Anesthesia Recovery and Pain Control:
Post Operative Pain Control- Your pet
will be given an injectable medication for post operative
pain control. In
addition, Dogs will be give a
written prescription you may fill at any pharmacy
for continued pain control. Cats tolerate very few orally administered pain
control drugs. For this reason we do not give prescriptions for cats. We do
make sure they have sufficient and safe pain control while at KAH.
Post Anesthesia - After anesthesia,
we require that your pet be fully awake before going home. All pets are
slightly sedate which insures a smooth and comfortable post operative
procedure. Be careful to not let the pet fall down the stairs or get into a
fight with other pets. Any grogginess usually passes within 24 hours, if it
does not please call KAH.
Food and Water – The preoperative drugs
and general anesthesia slows the digestive track of you pet. Unless otherwise
instructed do not feed your pet more than one third of their normal days intake
of food and water in very small portions the night of the
surgery. To do so may cause vomiting.
The next day you can feed and water normally.
If you want to compare KAH to other
Veterinary Hospitals we provide you a
Anesthesia and Surgical Check List you can print off for easy comparison.
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