Anesthesia

All surgeries require general anesthesia.  Anesthesia itself scares many people, but at Gallatin Veterinary Hospital we promise to do our best to help prevent surgical complications, anesthesia problems, or pain in your pet.  Anesthesia does sound frightening but is actually extremely safe, especially at GVH where we take every precaution to avoid complications.  We require pre-anesthetic blood work before a pet undergoes anesthesia so we know the pet is healthy enough to handle it.  When blood work shows us that kidney or liver functions are not within normal limits, we adjust the anesthetic protocol to safeguard your pet’s health and recovery.

Anesthesia can cause a lowering of blood pressure and decreased blood flow to the kidneys.  We always make sure that every patient undergoing surgery has an IV catheter for fluid support to prevent these problems.  The IV catheter also allows us a safe way to administer pain medication during and after surgical procedures.

It is also important to keep in mind that our facility never uses non-sterile instruments, and the instruments are sterilized after each procedure. Each patient is sterilely draped and we wear caps, masks and gowns and use a clean surgery suite.

Gallatin Veterinary Hospital has made a significant investment –over $50,000—to insure safe anesthesia. This includes staff training and protocols from a Board Certified Veterinary Anesthesiologist, state of the art monitoring equipment, human anesthesia machines, a heated recovery room, constant patient observation and monitoring by a nursing staff member, and medical gas installed to human facility standards.  You can be sure that your beloved pet will be in good hands with us.