Our Services
Anaesthesia and Patient Monitoring
Tranquilisation/Sedation
If travel, thunder, or fireworks upset your pet, he or she may benefit from tranquillisation or sedation. While sedated, the animal will stay awake or sleep lightly but can be roused when stimulated. To minimise any potential risk associated with tranquillisation or sedation, we need to assess each animal individually before we dispense these medications.
Please contact us if you would like to set up an assessment or discuss sedation with us.
Pain Management and Control
We know the issue of pain management is of great concern to pet owners today. As in human medicine, we have a variety of medications available to manage your pet’s pain both before and after surgery and in the event of trauma. We would be pleased to discuss the options available to you and your pet under any of the above circumstances.
Patient Monitoring
We monitor our patients closely to keep them as safe as possible during procedures that require general anaesthesia. A veterinary technician will continually assess your pet’s heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs to help prevent any anaesthetic risk.
Please feel free to ask us about our patient monitoring protocol or any concerns you might have about your pet’s procedure. We’d be happy to discuss these matters in more detail.
General Anaesthesia
For some procedures, your pet will need to be administered general anaesthesia so that he or she will be unconscious and not feel pain. Many pet owners worry about their pets being administered general anaesthesia. We can assure you that modern anaesthesia is generally quite safe; to further lower any risk, we perform a physical examination and run blood work ahead of time to catch any underlying health issues. In addition, we follow a specific anaesthetic protocol, including monitoring vital signs during the procedure, to ensure the safety of our patients.
We begin most general anaesthetic procedures by administering a sedative to help your pet relax, and decrease any anxiety and pain. We then administer an intravenous drug to provide complete anaesthesia and place a breathing tube into the patient’s trachea (windpipe). To maintain the state of unconsciousness, we deliver a gas anaesthetic in combination with oxygen through the breathing tube.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your pet receiving general anaesthesia or about the procedure for which your pet is scheduled.
Local Anaesthesia
If your pet is having a minor surgical or diagnostic procedure performed, we sometimes use a local aesthetic to help control pain. For example, when we perform a biopsy (in which a small portion of tissue is surgically removed so it can be examined), we often use a local aesthetic. Local aesthetics cause a loss of sensation in the area where the procedure is being performed. We sometimes use a sedative and/or anxiolytic (anti-anxiety medication) in combination with the local anaesthetic to keep pets calm during a procedure.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your pet receiving local anaesthesia or about the procedure for which your pet is scheduled.
