Try not to worry about your pet's anaesthetic

There comes a time in every animal's life where they have an illness or ailment that the vet needs to investigate. Then the vet says "I need to give your pet an anaesthetic!". Owners always fear these words and some even ask if they could "just be sedated" as they perceive this as being less 'risky'. I hope this blog will help to put your mind at rest and also provide more information for you to better understand the procedure of sedating or anaesthetising your animal.
All anaesthetics pose a small risk and unfortunately there is occasion when an animal will take a reaction to an anaesthetic or succumb to the deleterious effects of an anaesthetic drug. There are many ways that we can minimise this risk.
The differences between general anaesthesia and sedation are that with sedation the animal gets given a drug and is then monitored throughout the procedure whilst breathing room air and can then be reversed. With general anaesthesia the animal is given premedication but then the induction and gaseous drugs are tapered to the individual animal and procedure and they have a tube placed in their trachea (windpipe) to provide oxygen.

• At Glenbrae Veterinary Clinic, each animal is given a full, head to toe, clinical examination by an experienced, qualified veterinary surgeon. This can flag up issues such as dehydration, heart murmurs, infection and pain. It also allows us to determine the animal's temperament as very quiet, subdued animals will often require less anaesthetic than aggressive or highly excitable animals. It thus allows the vet to establish the level of premedication that the animal requires for a full general anaesthetic or determine whether the procedure is something that the dog will cope with under sedation alone.
• We offer every animal a pre-anaesthetic blood test. In young, healthy animals undergoing elective procedures such as spaying and castrating, this is an entirely optional procedure. However, there are certain work-ups or situations when this is required for us to give the best care to the animal and thus the vet will make the decision that this is mandatory for the particular case. The pre-anaesthetic blood sample allows the vet to look at the levels of the red and white blood cells and do a complete blood count. This rules out dehydration, infection, anaemia etc. The vet also looks at the full biochemistry which looks at the health of organs such as the liver and kidneys. Glucose levels are checked to ensure there is no underlying diabetes mellitus. We can determine whether there is any issues that suggest inflammation of specific organs or generally within the systems. Sometimes certain cancers cause blood changes and this would alert us earlier in the disease and potentially improve the outcome.
• Every animal undergoing a general anaesthesia and certain 'at risk' animals for sedation also have an intravenous catheter placed. This is a small tube attached to an injection port that allows venous access to remain patent. We use this for inducing anaesthesia and other intravenous injections but in an emergency situation this enables us to give medications sooner and thus aim to get a better outcome on the very rare occasion that we need to perform resuscitative techniques.
• Every animal anaesthetised is monitored throughout by a fully qualified and registered veterinary nurse. All of our nurses are very experienced and monitor anaesthetics on a daily basis. They are all familiar with the regular anaesthetic drugs used and thus are aware of exactly what they expect to happen. a deviation away from the expected means they, together with the vet, react rapidly and because of this the likelihood of severe complications or deleterious effects are minimised.
• When an animal is anaesthetised they are given a calculated dose of premedication which has pain relief and sedative effects. The animal is then induced to fall asleep and intubated (a tube placed in the trachea) to keep the airway patent and provide oxygen and anaesthetic gases. The anaesthetic gas used in Glenbrae Veterinary Clinic is sevoflurane and this is a newer inhalational anaesthetic that the body manages to adapt to rapidly and thus when we change the anaesthetic dial the animal is very rapidly at this new level. Older anaesthetics were not as easy to manipulate and so on occasion the problem took longer to resolve.
• Certain cases, and in any circumstance where we feel it is indicated we have the ability to check the animal's blood pressure. We can detect changes and manipulate the situation using reduced anaesthetic depth or fluid therapy to normalise the blood pressure and thus reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality.
• All animals are monitored closely throughout recovery which is one of the riskiest periods and if there are any problems then these can be rectified. We then allow them to go home at the earliest time so that you can provide the TLC that you have been desperate to provide your animal.

I hope that the above gives you a slightly better insight into what is involved with an anaesthetic and helps to put your mind at ease as we do everything in our power to make this procedure as safe as possible.