Your Pet and Anesthetics

Modern day anesthetics allow veterinarians to perform a vast amount of sophisticated medical procedures and surgeries with negligible consequences. Anesthesia is used for 2 main purposes. The first is to minimize anxiety. This can be very significant in a scared animal that is brought into a strange surrounding when it is not feeling well. The second is to eliminate pain and relax the muscles for surgical or invasive procedures. The anesthesia we use has been adapted from human medicine. As a matter of fact, in most cases, we use the exact same anesthetic agents and equipment. The main piece of equipment we use is a machine that allows us to administer anesthetic as a gas. This is a very safe and effective way to administer anesthesia, and is especially important for us doctors that work on exotic animals. New and safe injectable anesthetics are used more and more in dog and cat medicine because they have less impact on the environment. Preanesthetic preparation is one of the keys to safety. This involves an examination, blood sampling, and the use of intravenous fluids for older or riskier patients. Age is no limit to anesthesia as long as proper preanesthetic precautions are taken. Some people have an inordinate fear of anesthesia because they heard of some animal dying or had a bad experience years ago. It is rare to almost non-existent for an animal to die from anesthesia when routine precautions are taken, so this fear is unnecessary. It is common to have this fear when a pet is anesthetized for teeth cleaning. Dental disease is the most overlooked and serious problem of animals that are presented to our hospital. 

Anesthesia allows us to clean under the gumline with our ultrasonic scaler, care for infected or broken teeth, and polish the teeth to prevent the recurrence of gingivitis. 

The risk of gingivitis and periodontal disease causing illness in your pet is magnitudes higher than the risk of anesthesia. We have substantial information on our web site regarding anesthesia and even dental diseases. Please follow these links: Anesthesia- http://www.lbah.com/anes.htm Dental Disease- http://www.lbah.com/dent.htm From the doctors at the Long Beach Animal Hospital

3816 E. Anaheim St. Long Beach, CA 90804 USA