Anesthesia and Patient Monitoring

Gold-Standard Care

For gold-hearted pets.

We understand that unexpected pet emergencies can be stressful, and your pet needing anesthesia can add to your distress. Modern pet anesthesia is generally safe, but emergency conditions can put your pet at higher risk for complications. To maximize your pet’s safety, we take every possible precaution to stabilize your pet and evaluate their condition for underlying complications prior to surgery. If surgery is the only option to improve their condition, we’ll discuss the risks in detail to help you make an informed decision.

Patient Monitoring

Before undergoing anesthesia, pets are given a light sedative to relax them and allow us to place an IV catheter, if we haven’t already. We give fluids and medications through the IV to maintain anesthesia, control pain, and stabilize heart function and blood pressure. Once we induce anesthesia with an injectable medication, we place a tube in your pet’s trachea to protect their airway from collapse, and administer a combined oxygen and gas anesthetic. The gas anesthetic is metabolized quickly, so we can adjust your pet’s anesthetic depth throughout the procedure and quickly wake them after surgery.

The veterinarian who performs the surgery and the registered veterinary technician who serves as your pet’s anesthetist monitor your pet’s vital signs continuously, and can give medications or adjust the anesthesia should any problems arise. We monitor heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, carbon dioxide levels, and body temperature, and actively warm your pet to protect against heat loss. Your pet is also continuously monitored during recovery to ensure vitals return to baseline.

Before Anesthesia

Post Emergency Surgery

We likely will keep your pet overnight for monitoring after an emergency surgery, but we sometimes discharge stable pets the same night. Your pet may seem groggy, nauseous, or anxious as the anesthetic drugs clear from their system, but they should start to feel like themselves again after 12 to 24 hours.

You should alert our Cedarwood Veterinary & Animal Emergency Hospital team, or your primary veterinarian, if your pet does not regain their normal appetite or disposition following anesthesia and surgery.