Dogs and cats don’t just sit still and so we often need to give them a general anaesthetic to do things that we could do in people “under local anaesthetic”. It makes it much safer for your pet and our staff.

When we are going to give your pet an anaesthetic, the vet starts by giving your pet a complete physical examination and then sedates them. After a while in a heated observation cage, we get your pet out, place an IV catheter and then give an injection to anaesthetise them. All of our patients are then put on an anaesthetic machine and have their anaesthetic monitored by our nurses for heart rate, breathing, depth of anaesthesia and blood pressure if warranted.

All of our anaesthetised pets get IV fluids during their surgery- they wake up better and quicker and go home a lot more alert. Most surgeries are day surgery, but occasionally we will keep a pet in hospital overnight after an anaesthetic to keep them quiet (we know how excited they are to get out of here, sometimes they just need to be forced to slow down).