What You Need to Know Before Your Pet's Upcoming Surgery

Preparing for surgery at home:

No food after 9pm the night before surgery or breakfast the morning of, to avoid the risk of vomiting while under the influence of anesthesia.

Your pet can have access to water.

Unless otherwise stated, drop off time is between 7:30am and 9:00am. A receptionist will go over the estimate with you and get authorization and contact information. 

Procedures before surgery:

All pets receive a thorough physical exam before surgery, we also run blood work to assess blood components and organ function to make sure that your pet's body can process the anesthetic. 

We use a two part anesthetic protocol where we administer a sedative prior to inducing anesthesia. The first part, the pre-anesthetic injection is a combination of acepromazine and atropine. This premedication is used to relax your pet and can reduce the dose of anesthetic given, as well as counteract unwanted side effects from the anesthesia. The second part is a combination of midazolam and ketamine. Our clinic has been using this combination of medications for over two decades with minimal adverse reactions. After induction your pet is maintained on Isoflorane gas.  Every pet is an individual and we will adjust accordingly.

Monitoring:

While your pet is under anesthesia they are hooked up to a monitor. This monitor streams their EKG(heart waves), measures SpO2(amount of oxygen in the blood), takes a blood pressure, takes their temperature, and also monitors the breaths they are taking. 

We will place an IV catheter to give your pet fluids during and after their procedure. The fluids help to keep your pet's blood pressure up as well as provides a port in case an emergency arises and your pet needs medications quickly. 

Recovery and Home Care:

We like to keep patients with us for a period of time after surgery to make sure they are doing well and waking from the anesthesia. Generally speaking you can expect for your pet to stay with us until at least 3:30pm. A doctor or technician will call you after the procedure is done to tell you how things went and to discuss a pick up time. 

The surgery technician will go over home care with you when you arrive for pick up. When you take your pet home they will be awake but most likely a little groggy or slow. When you bring them home it is best to keep them in a quiet and warm part of your house where they can relax. If your dog or cat lives outdoors only we really recommend keeping them inside at least for the night so they can sleep everything off. You can offer your pet 1/4 to 1/2 of their normal evening meal depending on the type of procedure your pet has had. 

You should expect your pet to be back to normal or mostly normal by the next morning.