Pet Operations & Hospitalisation

Routine elective surgeries, diagnostic x rays, ultrasound examinations and dynamic blood tests are carried out between 10.30am and 3.00pm Monday to Friday. Obviously some pet operations are not routine and take place out of normal surgery hours.

Our normal experience for pets admitted to the veterinary centre for routine surgery is as follows:

Patients are normally admitted by one of our nurses in the morning, they check the patient’s general fitness for surgery including their weight, and talk to the owner regarding expected timing of their pet’s procedure. The nurse then takes the patient to our warm kennels or cattery, and places them in a suitable comfy bed.

Patients are then brought from the kennels/cattery to our preparation area and any pre operative blood testing, placing of catheters for intravenous fluids, and pre operative sedation is then undertaken, the patients are then returned to their bed to relax and to ensure the pre op sedation takes effect. This pre op usually contains a sedative and a short term form of pain relief. This reduces the amount of injectable anaesthetic required and ensures stable anaesthesia.

We normally start with what we consider to be clean ops i.e. those that involve going into an abdomen, and then progress to other operations such as lump removals. Dental treatments are always undertaken last. The patient is brought back through to prep and placed onto our prep table, where a patch of fur is clipped off their front leg to allow visualisation of the vein we will use to administer the intravenous anaesthetic.

We introduce a carefully calculated dose of injectable anaesthetic which renders the patient unconscious and enables us to introduce an endo tracheal tube down the patient’s windpipe. This is then used to supply both oxygen and gaseous anaesthetic, to keep the patient anaesthetised during their operation. Occasionally, we will also use nitrous oxide gas during the anaesthetic for its additional pain reliving qualities.

Our patient is now transferred into theatre, and placed on our heated and padded operating table for its surgical procedure.

After the anaesthetic, patients are transported back to their bed, which is kept especially warm to ensure a fast recovery from the anaesthetic. At this time we usually try to contact the patient’s owners, with news of the operation and when they should phone for a collection time.

After recovery, our patients are offered water and a small amount of a suitable recovery diet. Our canine patients are taken outside for a chance to go to the toilet.

Finally an appointment is made with one of our nurses to discharge the patient, discuss any post operative requirements, and answer any questions about the patient’s treatment. A written copy of the discharge instructions are also given as a reminder, together with the remaining post operative recovery diet.