At the Animal Care Hospital we understand that admitting your pet for an anaesthetic or sedation is a very worrying time for you the owner. We would like to reassure you about the safety of our anaesthetic protocols here at the hospital. We are confident about our anaesthesia for the following reasons:
1. We offer in-house pre-anaesthetic bloods to determine if your pet is healthy enough for an anaesthetic, depending on the results we may use a different combination of drugs or administer intravenous fluids. We have our own laboratory which enables us to have blood results within the hour allowing us to make real-time decisions on your pets anaesthetic needs.
2. We utilise a balanced approach to anaesthesia, this means a combination of a mild sedative injection to relax your pet, followed by an intravenous (into the vein) injection that will anaesthetise your pet briefly (count back from 10!!), then just like in humans, anaesthesia is maintained by intubating (ET tube down throat) and administering a mix of anaesthetic gas and 100% oxygen. Pain relief is administered before, during and after the anaesthetic. We believe pain is commonly overlooked and under treated, at the Animal Care Hospital we endeavour to correct this.
3. Anaesthetic protocol – our anaesthetic drugs are some of the safest and most modern available.
4. Our new surgery wing has oxygen piped in and quality control is extremely meticulous.
What to expect
The intravenous injection is administered via a catheter into the vein, and during the anaesthetic your pet may thus receive fluids or any other drugs that may be required. The tube in the throat (endotracheal tube) gives us control of the airway if extra breaths are needed to be given, and also protects the airway from blockage while your pet is asleep.
Anaesthetics are constantly monitored by trained, experienced and qualified veterinary nurses.
After the procedure is finished and your pet is being recovered from anaesthesia, we monitor recovery closely, keep your pet warm and monitor his/her temperature. Extra pain relief is administered as needed.
If you have any questions about any of our services or you would like to book in for a consultation, get in touch!