What Happens When My Pet Comes In For a Spay or Neuter Surgery?
Spay and neuter surgeries are the most common surgical procedures we perform at Alpine Veterinary Medical Centre. This post is about what happens to your pet after you drop them off for their surgery.
When you check in with your pet in the morning, one of our customer service representatives will weigh your pet and check them in. It is important that you leave a phone number you can be reached at when you check your pet in. We will confirm that your pet has been properly fasted, and then discuss whether or not we are performing a pre-anesthetic blood panel on your pet. Pre-anesthetic blood panels allow us to look at your pet's blood cell counts, protein levels, liver and kidney enzymes, and electrolytes, and allow us to detect changes that might not be found on a physical exam.
After your pet is checked in, they will be taken to a kennel to wait until their surgery. Your pet will have a pre-surgical exam performed by one of our veterinarians to ensure that they are healthy enough for surgery. Approximately half an hour before their surgery, your pet will be give a pain medication and a sedative to help them relax and to decrease post-surgical pain.
After your pet is feeling relaxed and comfortable from their dose of medication, they will be moved to the treatment room where they will have an intravenous catheter placed and where anesthesia will be induced. After your pet has been anesthetized, we will prep them for surgery and administer a local anesthetic at their surgical site to minimize their pain after waking up.
During your pet's surgery, a licensed veterinary technician will be closely monitoring their heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation, and temperature. By having a technician dedicated to monitoring these parameters continuously, we are able to ensure your pet's anesthesia and surgery is as safe as possible.
After your pet's surgery, they will be monitored in the treatment room until they are ready to go back into their kennel. We closely monitor pain, level of consciousness and body temperature as your pet is waking up, and will provide your pet with supplemental heat or pain control if they are cold or appear painful during recovery. Your pet will have been administered pain medication before and after surgery, and will have pain medication to go home to ensure that they are as comfortable as possible during their recovery.
When your pet is discharged, one of our technicians will go over discharge instructions with you to discuss how your pet's surgery went and how to provide care for them while they are recovering. We have a veterinarian available on call 24 hours a day - so if you have any concerns that your pet is in pain or not feeling well during their recovery you can call us and speak to a veterinarian.
Please contact us if you have any questions about what will happen during your pet's surgery!