Knowing your pet needs surgery can be stressful. Rest assured, here at Rose Avenue Vets in Coffs Harbour and Toormina, our professional vets and vet nurses will treat your beloved pet with expert care and attention. Moreover, we’ll help you feel relaxed by informing you about their stay with us. Below are a few general guidelines for your pet’s preparation for surgery.
If your pet is booked in for elective surgery, it is essential to follow the directions given by your vet or nurse. This will include a period of fasting. Dogs and cats must fast overnight, so no access to any food from around 10 pm the night before. Ferrets, rats and guinea pigs require a period of 4-6hrs fasting, so take the food out of the cage the morning of surgery and let us know what time you did this. Lastly, rabbits and birds DO NOT require fasting – please bring some food with you when you drop them off.
As part of your pet’s preparation for surgery, medications may have been prescribed for your animal; if so, please administer as directed until the night before surgery. Do not give oral medications on the day of surgery unless instructed to do so by your vet.
Every anaesthetic carries a risk. This risk increases with age, illness, and brachycephalic animals (“short-faced” breeds like pugs, bulldogs, and Persian cats). Your vet will help you weigh the risk of anaesthetic with the risk to the animal’s health or quality of life if the anaesthetic is not performed.
There are also things we can do to help decrease the risk of death under anaesthetic.
For example, a pre-anaesthetic blood test can be used to screen your animal for poor organ function before clinical signs are detected that might put them at an increased risk. The results might mean reassessing whether your animal needs the surgery or changing the anaesthetic protocol (drugs selected, or the doses and timing given) to lower the risk. Furthermore, a more complete blood test can be performed if requested before the day of surgery.
Intraoperative intravenous (IV) fluid therapy is an excellent, cost-effective way to lower the risk of anaesthetics. We strongly recommend fluid therapy, particularly in older animals or long anaesthetics, but this treatment can always benefit a patient. Essentially, IV fluid therapy will help maintain good blood pressure and blood flow to the vital organs under anaesthetic. Plus, helping to flush any toxic waste products from the body during surgery and anaesthetic drugs after surgery for a smoother recovery.
Each surgery performed at Rose Avenue or Toormina Road Vet Clinic is given individual attention. Your pet will be monitored throughout the anaesthetic with up-to-date equipment, and a designated nurse is always present to monitor and adapt the anaesthetic for your animal during and immediately after surgery.
