General anaesthesia is produced in a patient by a combination of three things. These are pain relief, muscle relaxation and loss of consciousness. There is no drug which does all of these satisfactorily or to a level where surgery is possible. Thus a combination of drugs is often used to give adequate levels of these 3 required effects.

At Alexandra & Hillyfields Vets we use the most modern drugs available to ensure the most effective, highest quality and safest anaesthesia possible.

Every general anaesthetic is a bespoke procedure tailored to suit the individual animal and all decisions on drug doses and the protocol are made with your animal’s particular circumstances in mind

If your pet is to come to our surgery for an operation, it is natural for you to be concerned. No anaesthetic procedure is 100% risk free, however we will ensure that your pet receives the highest standards of care at all times while they are with us.

All general anaesthesia at our practice is monitored only by fully qualified RCVS Registered / highly experienced Veterinary Nurses. Between them they have many hundreds if not thousands of hours of anaesthetic monitoring. They are all very experienced in preventing complications arising and dealing with high risk anaesthesia in older patients.

After admission, your pet will receive a thorough pre-anaesthetic check-up by a vet to ensure there are no obvious underlying issues that could cause a problem when they are anaesthetised. Your pet will then be weighed and a precise dose of premedication is calculated. This will comprise a sedative and potent opiate pain killer. These drugs allow for a smooth induction phase and reduce the amount of drugs needed for the rest of the anaesthetic procedure. After injection of these drugs your pet will be left in a quiet, comfortable kennel and kept under observation while the ‘pre-med’ takes effect.

The next stage of the procedure is the induction. A different drug is injected into a vein, usually on the foreleg to rapidly and smoothly induce unconsciousness. It is important that this is done smoothly so as not to cause any distress to your pet. Once they are asleep then a tube can be placed into their airway to allow them to breathe easily and the tube is connected to the anaesthetic machine.

The anaesthetic machine allows us to maintain the level of anaesthesia required. The machine delivers very precisely measured levels of anaesthetic gas mixed with oxygen. This keeps the animal asleep and at a level where surgery can be performed. The machine is also able to deliver Nitrous Oxide gas. This is a very safe anaesthetic and pain killing gas which helps keep the levels of other drugs low.

While under anaesthesia, your pet will breathe a very high concentration of oxygen. We are able to measure the levels of oxygen dissolved in the blood with a Pulse Oximeter Machine. You may be surprised, but your pet will have very much more oxygen in their blood while under anaesthesia then when they are awake!

After their operation, they will be allowed to breathe 100% oxygen until they are almost awake and the tube is only removed form their airway when they are able to swallow and maintain their own laryngeal reflexes.

If they have undergone surgery, they will have painkilling drugs given before they are anaesthetised and these may be repeated after waking up to give a longer duration of pain relief. Anti-inflammatory medication may also be given on discharge to keep your pet comfortable in the postoperative period.