Anesthesia
A successful anesthetic experience doesn’t mean that the patient only wakes up. A successful anesthetic procedure means that the patient was kept under an appropriate level of anesthesia while maintaining healthy vitals of heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, oxygenation, EKG, and blood pressure.
AVC provides individualized anesthetic plans based on the patient’s age, size, and medical condition. We use protocols taught by Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary medicine. Patients receive a sedative, which also provides pain relief and use IV (intravenous) induction of anesthesia. “Gassing down” a patient, despite common use of the practice, is not the safest way to induce anesthesia, in fact, it is very hard on the patient’s vitals.
After our patients are induced by IV (with few exceptions being intramuscularly), they are maintained on gas anesthesia and monitored closely by our staff manually and digitally.
Our clients commonly report great satisfaction with the patient’s condition the day after an anesthetic procedure, as we take great care to make the process as easy and safe for the patient as possible.
Blood pressure monitoring is vitally important but often missing from many veterinary clinics. Anesthetic agents cause blood pressure to lower, and being able to identify and adjust low blood pressure is key to keeping blood flowing adequately to the kidneys, liver, and brain.
In addition to digital monitoring of vitals as listed above, our assistants monitor the patient’s vitals and are well-trained in anesthesia monitoring and make adjustments as approved by the veterinarian.