Anaesthesia Options
Anaesthesia Options
To perform surgical procedures on our animals, and to clean their teeth thoroughly, we generally need to give them an anaesthetic. This involves an initial injection under the skin, a ‘pre med’, containing pain relief and a relaxing drug to calm them before the procedure.
A short while afterwards, the anaesthetic drug is given to put them into a deep sleep and prevent them from feeling pain through the procedure. Our patients are then supported with oxygen and inhalation anaesthetic gas through the procedure.
Whilst our modern drugs are very safe and we rarely have issues, there are a few additional options that we can provide to support our patients through the anaesthesia to further reduce risks.
Pre Anaesthetic Blood Tests
These are particularly helpful in all sick and elderly patients to help us to check on their liver and kidney function as well as other useful parameters. For all animals, this can be a useful screen test to help ensure minimal complications.
Fluid Therapy Support
As our animals drift off to sleep under the anaesthetic, their heart rate slows as they relax. This has the effect of lowering the blood pressure, the majority of animals cope well with this and adjust their vital organs accordingly. However, in sick and elderly animals (over 7 years) this adjustment mechanism may be compromised, and therefore placing our patients on a saline drip to keep their blood pressure stable and provide intra-venous fluid therapy is a wonderful support. In all animals we offer this option to assist in their anaesthetic experience and recovery.
Having Intra-venous fluid therapy in place also allows us to deliver intra-venous vitamin C which is a very effective anti- oxidant, working to boost the body’s natural defenses against infection, as well as mopping up cell damage caused by free radicals. This enables the body’s resources to be freed up to support healing and maintain health.
Sub-cutaneous Fluid Therapy delivers fluid under their skin which is slowly absorbed. It assists our patients with recovery but isn’t as efficient as intra-venous fluid therapy.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
We have a novel way to provide further support to our patients, either prior to surgery to prepare them for a safer and more stable anesthetic, or when recovering from their procedure. This involves placing them in our hyperbaric oxygen chamber where they relax breathing pure oxygen, while the chamber is pressurized for 1-2 hours. This provides a far greater amount of oxygen to be available to tissues in the body. Oxygen at optimal levels has profound anti-inflammatory effects; it helps to rid the body of infection both directly by killing certain bugs and indirectly by supporting the immune system and assists to accelerate healing.