At Bulger, ensuring the safety and comfort of our patients is essential. Although general anesthesia is very safe, our veterinarians and support staff take a number of measures to alleviate pain and make this procedure even less risky.
Prior to anesthesia, the doctor will perform a complete physical examination. Depending on the age and the health of your pet, our veterinarian may recommend an electrocardiogram and blood pressure, to assess heart function, as well as laboratory tests to determine the health of organs such as the liver and kidneys. The doctor will evaluate all pre-anesthetic tests and determine the best anesthetic drugs for your individual pet, as well as any special measures that would benefit that patient. In most cases, the veterinarian will use a combination of medications that include a sedative, several pain relievers and a general anesthetic.
An experienced veterinary technician monitors the patient during anesthesia, using a wide array of parameters. They observe the patient for mucous membrane color and quality of respirations, and use state-of-the-art monitoring equipment to measure levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, blood pressure, and activity of the heart. After the procedure, our veterinary team will monitor your pet closely to ensure a smooth, pain-free recovery.
Soft, warm bedding and the human interaction, observation and compassion of your pet’s dedicated veterinary technician ensures recovery from surgery and anesthesia is as comfortable as possible.
Anesthesia for Special Cases
Bulger Veterinary Hospital has a full range of specialists, including Dr. Stephanie Fissekis, DACVAA, who have the knowledge, skills, and resources to provide as safe an anesthetic event as possible. Our team plans each anesthetic event, tailored to each patient and procedure, with consideration to optimize the patient’s welfare from before they leave the family’s home the morning of surgery through the anesthetic event and into recovery and discharge.
Chronic renal insufficiency cats? Who also have hyperthyroidism? Oh, with a dollop of HCM on top!? What about your poorly-controlled diabetics, hyperadrenocorticism, or hypothyroid patients? Remember your asthmatics, collapsing trachea, and brachycephalic patients in addition to those who have chronic exposure to environments with nicotine smoke? All these patients still need dentals, cystotomies, mass removals and more advanced procedures like CT, phacoemulsification, and laparoscopic liver biopsies.
Give us your fractious, your fragile, and your plethora of co-morbidities. Dr. Fissekis can offer appointments for anxious clients who would like to review the anesthetic event individually. Patients with complicated medical conditions and histories can still receive sedation and anesthesia at Bulger. We have medications and specialized equipment for monitoring and treatment of anesthetic complications. We also have a fully equipped ICU to take care of the recovery and post-operative monitoring. We would be happy to support your families through this hazardous component of providing care to patients.
We are here to support you. No patient is too old or too complicated for anesthesia. Rarely, they may be too ill, in these cases, we can help guide decision-making for these patients.