Pet Anesthesia And Patient Monitoring Coulter Animal Hospital in Amarillo, TX

Pet Anesthesia And Patient Monitoring

General Anesthesia

Many surgical procedures require general anesthesia, which creates an unconscious state to avoid patient movement and feeling any pain. Pet owners are usually very concerned with general anesthesia for their pets. We use the safest injectable and gas anesthetics available. Our gas machines are equipped with safety devices to provide safe administration, and we have patient monitoring at all times while the patient is under anesthesia. Physical exams and blood work done before anesthesia are necessary to ensure your pet can undergo general anesthesia safely.

We prefer to use gas anesthesia administered with a gas mask to induce anesthesia and then maintain the gas and oxygen mixture through an endotracheal tube inserted into the patient’s windpipe. Suppose a pre-anesthetic sedative is necessary to relax and reduce anxiety. In that case, we administer this intravenously and then reverse this agent as soon as the patient is sedated further with gas anesthesia.

We at Coulter Animal Hospital can explain what method we will use on your pet if you have any questions about this procedure.

Local Anesthesia

Minor surgical or diagnostic procedures like biopsies of the skin, lancing an abscess, or lasering a wart can be done with local anesthesia with a subcutaneous injection of carbocyanine or lidocaine. The injectable agents cause a 1 to 4-hour loss of sensation in the area where the procedure is being performed. If movement during the course is perceived, we will combine an injectable medication that will be reversed after the process is completed to keep the patient calm and immobile during the surgical procedure.

We can explain what method we will use on your pet if you have any questions about this procedure.

Sedation And Tranquilization

Tranquilization is used for conditions that cause your extreme pet anxiety or if your pet is aggressive. Anxious causes include thunder, fireworks, travel, separation anxiety, or veterinary exam tables (needle phobia). These agents will lightly sedate the patient, but they stay awake or sleep lightly. Separation anxiety is treated with anti-anxiety medication, which produces little sedation. Patients receiving these anesthetic agents require physical exams and blood work before being given. The agents can be given orally, intramuscularly, or intravenously.

If your pet has motion sickness, we prefer using an anti-nausea medication called Cerenia. This treatment is very successful if you administer this medication 2 hours before travel and do not feed your pet within 8 hours of the trip.

We can explain what method we will use in our Hospital on your pet if you have any questions about this procedure.