Anesthesia

Your Pet's Anesthetic Experience

At the MVRC our commitment to your pet's anesthetic experience is to maintain optimal comfort and safety, provide extensive in-depth monitoring to detect and resolve patient individual problems, due to stress and anxiety from a pet being away from home and in a strange environment, and eliminate pain from injury and surgery.  Anesthesia is a fluid, dynamic medical procedure that involves critical support throughout emergency and specialty care at the MVRC. 

The Safety of Your Pet is Paramount To Us. 

We recognize that an critical aspect of any surgery is the delivery of anesthesia.  Each individual patient has a dedicated licensed veterinary technician to monitor anesthesia.  Our highly trained surgical staff use the most advanced and safest anesthetic techniques and monitoring.

Balanced Anesthesia

Balances anesthesia is used to minimize patient risk and maximize patient comfort and safety.  The objectives of balanced anesthesia at the MVRC are to calm the patient, reduce the potential for adverse effects associated with analgesic and anesthetic agents, and minimize pain.

Pre-Anesthetic Review of Patient History

A pre-surgical review of a patient's history includes food consumption prior to admissions, following withholding orders of the doctor, (water intake  whether it should or should not be withheld), record and review of any new health concerns, and record and review of any previous anesthetic problems.  In addition pets with histories of excessive stress when kenneled, chewing at stitches or bandages, and difficulty restricting activity should be assessed. 

Pre-Anesthetic Physical Exam

A pre-anesthetic analgesics can not only calm the patient and reduce stress, but also decrease the need for higher doses of inhalant anesthetics.  Fluid support plays a roll in maintaining blood pressure under anesthesia and to ensure adequate perfusion of vital organs.

Pre-Anesthetic Testing

Pre-anesthetic testing is a necessary to detect underlying disorders that may influence the management of the patient or influence the prognosis associated with any given disorder:  The MVRC is experienced at decision making regarding when to perform pre-anesthetic test and what tests are indicated for individual patient needs.

Induction of anesthesia

Induction of anesthesia is performed under a doctor's supervision by our trained, experienced and licensed veterinary technicians.  Intravenous induction drug is given through the catheter, with the minimum dose to allow the patient's jaw to open to place an endotracheal tube into the airway.

Maintenance of Anesthesia

Following the induction of anesthesia, the patient is placed on a inhalant anesthetic and supplemental oxygen.  Inhaled anesthetics allow for precise control over the patient's anesthetic depth throughout the surgical or diagnostic procedure.

Monitoring and respiratory support under anesthesia

All are patients are carefully monitored throughout their anesthetic experience.  Monitoring includes observation and
recording of heart rate and rhythm, pulse oxygenation, carbon dioxide output, blood pressure, fluid rate, oxygen flow rate,
anesthetic depth % and body temperature.

Recovery from Anesthesia

Prior to waking up, patients are given one or more medications for pain control during recovery.
In recovery your pet is in direct contact with the surgical staff during anesthetic recovery and
under continuous care to ensure recovery is progressing in a stable manner, there is continuous
monitoring of the patient's respiratory function, temperature, perfusion heart rate and rhythm,
and mental status after extubation.  Animals are kept warm with circulating warm water
blankets, a heat radiating recovery bay, and blankets until they can thermo regulate on their
own.  Pain medication needs are continually addressed throughout recovery as needed for
anticipated needs as well as an animal's current individual needs.

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