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What You Need to Know Before Your Pet's Upcoming Surgery
Many people have questions about various aspects of their pet's surgery, and we hope this information will help.
Why does my pet need a blood test? Preanesthetic blood testing is important in reducing the risk of anesthetic complications. Every pet needs blood testing before surgery to ensure that the liver and kidneys can process the anesthetic. Blood testing also evaluates the number of blood cells to alert the doctor to hidden problems with infection, blood clotting, and blood levels. Some animals will benefit from additional preanesthetic testing beyond basic blood testing including: clotting profiles, EKG, echocardiogram, and blood sugar monitoring. Even apparently healthy animals can have serious organ system problems that cannot be detected without blood testing. If there is a problem, it is much better to find it before it causes anesthetic or surgical complications. Often, animals with minor dysfunction can still successfully have anesthesia and surgery if the anesthetic drugs are tailored to the pet's health. If serious problems are detected, surgery can be postponed until the problem is corrected. Why does my pet need an IV? The use of intravenous (IV) fluids has also dramatically changed the safety of anesthesia. Fluids aid in keeping the heart rate and blood pressure at the levels necessary to bring adequate blood to the organs. This has been shown to improve a pet's recovery from anesthesia as well as reduce the risk of organ damage. Fluids also help to offset the minor loss of blood your pet experiences during surgery. Additionally, the IV line allows instant access to administer emergency drugs in the event that your pet does have a negative reaction to the anesthesia. This instant access improves the odds of your pet surviving a negative anesthetic event. Will my pet be monitored during anesthesia? Anesthetic monitoring is another feature that increases the safety of modern anesthesia. First and foremost, your pet will have a veterinary technician monitoring him from the time anesthesia begins until your pet recovers. Your pet will be monitored by machines similar to those seen in human surgical facilities. We have continuous monitoring of 7 vital signs: EKG (heart rhythm), heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, blood pressure, and body temperature. Your pet will be kept warm through the use of warm water blankets. By keeping the values in acceptable ranges, we reduce the risk of negative anesthetic events and improve the odds of a smooth recovery from anesthesia. We use monitors to alert us to changes in your pet's cardiac and respiratory function so that we can make anesthetic adjustments and hopefully avoid a crisis. Can my pet eat before anesthesia? It is important that surgery be done on an empty stomach to reduce the risk of vomiting during and after anesthesia. You will need to withhold food for at least 8 to 10 hours before surgery. Water can be left down for the pet until the morning of surgery. Will my pet be groggy? Your pet may be tired for 12-24 hours following anesthesia. The duration and degree depends upon many factors: the pet's age, duration of anesthesia, and complexity of the surgery. A puppy undergoing a spay or neuter will most likely be ready to race out the door that same evening. An older pet who undergoes a 2-3 hour anesthesia to remove a cancerous abdominal tumor can expect to take 24 or more hours to recover. Our anesthesia has a short duration of action. This means that animals process and eliminate the anesthesia very quickly (within hours). The older anesthetic drugs often took days to eliminate from the body. Sadly, some practitioners still use these older drugs which have been shown to provide poor anesthesia, poor pain control and poor recoveries. If you have had the experience of a pet taking "days" to recover from anesthesia, you can almost be positive that your pet received an inferior anesthesia.
Because cats do not tolerate standard pain medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or Tylenol, we are limited in what we can give them. Recent advances in pain medications have allowed for better pain control in cats than ever before. We have easy to administer oral pain medications that just need to be applied to your cat's gums or under the tongue. Providing whatever pain relief is appropriate is a humane and caring thing to do for your pet. |