A Day in the Life of a Surgery Patient at Evervet
Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes when your pet when is admitted for hospital care? It’s understandable that you might be a little nervous about leaving your babies with us, and we know one of the reasons for this is uncertainty about what goes on in our treatment area. We thought we’d take you through the process step by step so that next time you can rest assured you know exactly how much love they’re getting!
Before any patient can be admitted to hospital, a signed consent form must have been completed (this is a legal thing!). We send these via email so you’ll have plenty of time to read it. A nurse will call you the day before your pet’s visit to answer any questions before you complete the online consent form, which can then be conveniently emailed back to us.
On the day of admission, your pet will first visit our treatment area to be assessed by the nursing team. We recommend pre-anaesthetic blood screening for all of our patients, so if you have elected for these our nurses will take a blood sample to be tested by our in-house laboratory. Once the vets have checked the results and confirmed we’re good to go, your pet will receive a premedicant - usually a combination of an opioid (strong pain reliever) and a sedative. Not only will this help your pet relax, it also allows us to use lower doses of anaesthetic drugs during surgery, which in turn leads to quicker recoveries afterward.
Once your pet has had her premedicant, she’ll be moved to a warming mat in our ICU area for observation. As soon as she’s feeling pleasantly drowsy, we have a vet and nurse place an intravenous (IV) catheter in the leg.
Next, we administer our ‘induction agent’- used to induce a deeper plane of anaesthesia - your pet will most likely receive a medication called Propofol which is likely to be exactly the same as you’d receive for an anaesthetic! Once your pet is asleep we place an endotracheal tube down his airway; we then connect this tube to a circuit delivering oxygen and an anaesthetic gas that will keep them safely asleep for the duration of the procedure.
Next up is surgery! Our dedicated anaesthetic nurse will be monitoring your pet whilst the surgeon prepares to operate. We perform a huge variety of surgeries - desexing procedures, dental treatments, cancer operations, orthopaedic procedures for injured ligaments and bones, airway surgeries for our flat-faced friends (to improve their breathing), keyhole organ biopsies, and exploratory surgeries to treat everything from bladder stones to intestinal blockages.
Once the procedure is complete, the anaesthetic gas is turned off and your pet will soon start to wake up. Your pet is attended by a nurse at all times during recovery; it is very important to only remove the endotracheal tube once we’re awake enough to breathe and swallow independently.
Once fully awake, she is moved to a warm recovery area in the ICU area for further observation. Here she will continue to be actively warmed and made comfortable. Our nurses will continually check her vitals and pain levels, and administer further medication as required. This part of the process also involves lots of cuddles (if your pet likes that kind of thing!) to ensure waking up in strange surrounds doesn’t feel scary.
Now that surgery has gone smoothly, it’s back to normal for most patients! We offer a small amount of food once fully awake - people are often surprised to know their pets usually wolf down food after recovery from an anaesthetic; although once the novelty of food wears off it’s not uncommon for them to eat less dinner than usual once back at home.
And that’s it! We discharge the vast majority of our surgical patients bright, happy and with wagging tails that same evening. Occasionally after a major procedure ongoing expert monitoring will be recommended - in these cases, we are very fortunate to be able to offer care at Prahran until midnight, or at a nearby referral clinic whom we work closely with.
We hope you’ve learned something new about what happens during your pet’s visit to our treatment room, so that next time your fur baby stays for a procedure you’ll rest a little more comfortably knowing exactly what their experience will be like. If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.