Our Surgical Standards...

Pre-Surgical Exam
Your pet's surgeon will perform a full exam to assure that your pet is healthy enought to undergo their  
procedure. During this exam, they will also review our recommended pre-surgery blood work that is done
to make sure they can be safely anesthetized. You will be called before surgery with any concerns or 
abnormalities.

Pre-Anesthesia
We strongly recommend that all surgery condidates have a blood panel run before surgery to make sure
their liver and kidneys can handle the anesthesia. Even in apparently healthy patients, 20% will have
abnormalities on their blood work. If we don't look for these abnormalities, some can pose an anesthetic risk.
If abnormalities are found, it can result in early diagnosis and treatment. With minor modifications in 
anesthetic technique, your pet's procedure can often still be performed safely. We also recommend an IV
catheter and fluids to keep your pet hydrated while under as well as allowing us to have a direct port to a vein 
in case of an emergency.

Anesthesia
All patients are given pre-anesthetic medications before surgery to help calm your pet and provide pain relief. After the pre-anesthetic medications are given, we will give an induction medication that transitions your pet to anesthesia. We entubate all patients while under anesthesia and keep them on a gas anesthetic to maintain them under anesthesia. This also allows us to have control of what level of anesthesia they are under. After the surgery is completed we turn off the gas anesthetic to allow the patients to breathe pure oxygen until they start showing signs that they are getting ready for extubation. 

Monitoring
All patients are monitored from induction to full recovery with a pulse oximeter, which measures the heart
rate and blood oxygen. We also give you the option of EKG, captometer, blood pressure, and core temperature
monitoring. One of our surgery nurses is with your pet from the minute they go under until they are fully 
awake.

Pain Control
We routinely pre-medicate with a short acting pain killer. Post surgery patients receive an injection of 
metacam, which has been shown in some studies to provide better relief than morphine-derived pain 
medications. This injection lasts 24-48 hours. If your companion needs longer pain control, we will also 
provide excellent oral pain medications. For more painful procedures, we can also offer Fentanyl (time-
released morphine) patches. They are mostly used in orthopedic procedures.

Post-Surgery
Since we encourage techniques that allow quick recovery, we prefer for our patients to return home where 
they are comfortable and can rest as soon as possible.