Sedation and Anaesthesia

Fasting

Unless directed otherwise, we require our patients to be fasted for a minimum of 8 hours. This typically means taking food away from your pet no later than midnight the night before. Water access is allowed overnight, until you wake up in the morning. Please also keep your cat indoors the night before admission so they cannot scavenge anything.

Intravenous Fluids

Sedation or general anaesthesia can cause a pronounced drop in blood pressure. Coupled with surgery this can have serious consequences. All of our patients having an anaesthetic receive intravenous fluids. In some instances of sedation, this may be optional. Intravenous fluids help maintain their blood pressure during anaesthesia, help protect their kidneys and can reduce recovery time. It also provides an immediate way to administer drugs in the case of an emergency.

Pre-anaesthetic Blood Testing

The more information we have about your pet’s health, the better we are able to look after them. It is for this reason we recommend a blood test before any sedation/anaesthetic or surgical procedure if they have not had one within the past 6 months. For our older patients (typically 8 years and above), this aspect will generally be non-optional.

Pre-anaesthetic blood tests investigate the function of your pet’s major organs such as the kidneys and liver. Even in apparently healthy cats and dogs (young or old), these can pick up underlying medical conditions prompting modifications to their anaesthesia and/or management plan. Our in-house blood analyser enables us to process your pet’s blood after admission.

Monitoring

We use human-grade equipment to provide gold standard monitoring of your pet whilst they are sedated or under anaesthesia. This includes continuously measuring their heart rate and oxygen levels, carbon dioxide levels, ECG, blood pressure and temperature. Our trained hospital nurses will then monitor your pet throughout their entire recovery until they are discharged.

Frequently Asked Questions

Additional information about preparing your pet for surgery can be found on our Before and After Care page.

Your pet will be admitted with our surgical nurse for the day, so if you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask during this time.