We know anesthesia can cause stress and anxiety not only for your fur-baby but for you as well. CHVC has developed a presurgical plan to make the big day safer and less stressful for everyone. First, we know that anxiety and stress can make the car ride in harder, but it also means we often have to use higher quantities of our anesthetic medications. This can cause a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate under anesthesia which can increase anesthesia risks. By addressing anxiety and stress prior to coming to the clinic we are able to hopefully make the car ride in a little better and allows us to use less medication and make the procedure as safe as possible.
Secondly the anesthetic agents we use often cause our patients to be nauseous. This can lead to vomiting, not being able to take their pain medication, not wanting to eat or drink, and anxiety. For our canine friends, we have you give Cerenia prior to coming to the clinic. While we do not want you to feed a full meal a small meat ball-sized treat to give the pills is okay. For our kitty friends we know giving a pill can be hard so our skilled staff will give them their cerenia immediately after entering the clinic.
We also strongly encourage pre-op blood work. While this is not required, we absolutely recommend blood work as the anesthetic agents we use must be metabolized in the liver and excreted through the kidneys. If your fur baby is having some dysfunction in either of these organs we want to know that prior to starting the procedure. We also like to make sure they have an appropriate number of platelets so we feel confident in their clotting ability. We recommend blood work with 30-60 days of the procedure but will often have you come as a technician appointment about a week prior.
Surgery day can be stressful but CHVC has worked hard to make it a little less so with our presurgical plan. As always if you have any questions or concerns let us know either through our clinic app, email, or a phone call.
Until Next Time….Dr. Paulson