It is always an anxious time when a member of your family is scheduled to have a procedure performed. We will always advocate the highest standards of care for your family member, and anaesthetising a patient is no different. We are committed to using the safest anaesthetic drugs available and will tailor your pets anaesthetic based on his/her individual needs.
This is the main reason we like to have as much information about your animal’s health as possible. It is important to inform us if your pet has had any recent health concerns or is on regular medications.
What Happens On The Day?
Admission
Admissions to hospital usually occur between 8:00am – 8:30am the morning their procedure. The receptionist will go through the anaesthetic consent form, confirming details such as your contact details for the day, ensuring your pet has been fasted correctly, explain the pre-anaesthetic testing, and arrange a discharge appointment for the afternoon. Please allow 10 minutes for the admission process as it’s very important that we go through all the information that is required and don’t overlook anything. Once this has been finalized, the receptionist will admit the patient into hospital.
If your pet is currently on medications, please give the normal dose at the usual time, unless otherwise instructed by us. If you cannot medicate without food, please bring the medication with you and we will administer it for you.
Nil By Mouth
On the morning of the procedure it is very important that you do not give your pet any breakfast. Your pet may have dinner the night before with any food remaining being removed by 10pm. They may have water overnight as long as it is removed by 7am the morning of the procedure.
Giving a meal before an anaesthetic or sedation can heighten the risk of complications as it greatly increases the chance of a patient vomiting under the anaesthetic and inhaling this into their lungs.
Pre-anaesthetic Blood Screens
We strongly recommend all patients have a basic blood screen performed prior to surgery. These tests check things such as kidney and liver enzymes (organs primarily responsible for metabolizing most of the anaesthetic drugs we use), blood sugar levels, red and white blood cell numbers and the patients clotting ability. Having this information allows us to tailor your pets anaesthetic protocol specifically for them and to be as safe as possible.
If your pets results are normal….that’s great! This gives you peace of mind that they are healthy, and it also provides us with a baseline for comparison if they ever become ill in the future.
While we emphasise the importance of pre-anaesthetic testing and thoroughly recommend it, it isn’t mandatory, and does come at an extra cost..
What Happens After I Leave?
Pre-operative clinical examination and pre-anaesthetic testing are performed – if the patient is healthy, they will be given a pre-anaesthetic sedative to provide pain relief and to minimize stress. If the patient requires further diagnostics and/or pre-operative intravenous fluid therapy, the veterinarian will contact you to discuss this, hence why it is important to have your contact number for the day.
Intravenous catheterization – every patient who is having anaesthesia or sedation will have an intravenous catheter placed for the duration of their stay. This allows us to give intravenous fluids throughout the procedure but more importantly, allows us access to administer medications such as anaesthetics and emergency drugs on the rare occasions they are required.
Your pet will then be anaesthetized and the procedure performed.
Anaesthesia monitoring – it’s critical that we monitor your pets anaesthesia from the time they are anaesthetized until they are back on the hospital ward, to ensure that any abnormalities are detected and rectified as soon as possible. Your pet will have one of our dedicated highly qualified nurses to monitor them throughout the surgery and recovery. We have the very best in patient monitoring available to us and your pets.
The nurse responsible for monitoring your pet throughout the day will call you once they have recovered to put your mind at rest.
Pain relief – surgery can be painful in any species. Long acting pain relief will be administered once your pet has recovered from the anaesthesia. Major surgical procedures such as exploratory surgery and orthopaedic surgery may require the patient to stay in overnight on a constant infusion of intravenous pain relief. Further oral pain relief may be given for you to administer at home. Your vet will discuss this if required at discharge.
E-collars – most of our patients wish to investigate their surgical wounds. Licking and rubbing can lead to delayed healing, introduction of infection to the wound, or the sutures being chewed or removed. If you think your pet may be one of these nosy parkers, please let us know, and we can send him/her home with an e-collar.
Discharge – later in the afternoon, our nursing team will get the patient ready for their discharge appointment with one of our veterinarians who will go through blood results, medications to administer and general discharge instructions as well as answer any questions you may have.
Our team are always here to help so feel free to ask if you have any further questions.