Specialty Surgery

Anesthesia and Recovery

A. Anesthetic Induction

anesthesia is performed by our staff of highly trained veterinary technicians under the supervision of our surgeons. Anesthetic protocols are selected on the basis of the surgery to be performed, your pet’s health and preoperative blood-work. Anesthesia is induced with a variety of drugs and then in most cases maintained using an inhalant drug delivered in oxygen through a tube placed in your pet’s throat. This allows careful delivery of a safe level of anesthesia throughout the surgical procedure.

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B. Anesthetic Monitoring

after anesthesia is induced your pet is moved into the operating room and prepared for sterile surgery. Anesthesia is monitored by a technician and various parameters such as blood pressure, ECG, pulse oxygen and end tidal CO2 are recorded and trended. Body temperature is maintained with a circulating hot-water blanket and a hot air-blanket. Sometimes a ventilator is used to support respiration. This allows us to maintain and adjust the anesthesia throughout the surgical procedure in the safest possible way.

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C. Postoperative Pain Management

we, in the surgery department, are very concerned about keeping your pet as comfortable as possible during and after surgery. We use a “pre-emptive” and “multi-modal” approach to pain management that starts before surgery and continues into the postoperative period. “Pre-emptive” means that we seek to stop the onset of pain by giving drugs before the anesthesia wears off to stop pain from intensifying or “winding up”. “Multimodal” means that we use a variety of drugs and modalities that treat pain at different levels and points in the pain pathway. This has been shown to be more effective at reducing pain after surgery. We endeavour to make your pet’s recovery from surgery as smooth as possible. We believe that less pain is “ less stress” which leads to smoother recovery and better surgical outcomes.

D. ICU/24 hour care

we are very glad to be able to say that our patients receive 24 hour care from our dedicated staff of emergency veterinarians, technicians and assistants. Alta Vista is staffed 24/7 and our surgical patients are cared for overnight and on weekends by these very competent and caring staff members. We also have a surgeon on call 24/7 should there be any need for additional surgical consultation or attention. Our more critical patients are transferred into ICU where they can receive more intensive monitoring and treatment according to their condition.

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