For some procedures, your pet will need to be administered general anesthesia so that he or she will be unconscious and not feel pain. Many pet owners worry about their pets being administered general anesthesia. We can assure you that modern anesthesia 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 anesthetic protocols tailored to each individual pet, including monitoring vital signs during the procedure, to ensure the safety of our patients.
We begin most general anesthetic procedures by administering a sedative to help your pet relax and decrease any anxiety and pain. We then administer an intravenous medication to provide complete temporary anesthesia while a breathing tube is gently placed into your patient’s trachea (windpipe). To maintain the state of unconsciousness, we deliver a gas anesthetic in combination with oxygen through the breathing tube. This allows us to deliver a precise level of anesthesia based on your pet’s procedure, and adjustments can be made quickly for any “fine tuning” that is necessary.
At Frey Pet Hospital, we are proud to have Iowa’s only Board Certified Anesthetist on staff. This combined with our state of the art patient monitoring system and surgical suite (recognized nationally for its design), ensures that your pet’s procedure will be performed with the highest level of safety possible.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your pet receiving general anesthesia or about the procedure for which your pet is scheduled.
