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You will be asked a few routine questions so that we have your pet fully identified and are certain that any preoperative instructions have been carried out and that we know of any allergies or unusual reactions we might encounter during your pet’s stay with us. All day care and in-patients will be weighed and any necessary identification of the surgical site will be done during this admission procedure. You will be asked to sign a consent form before your pet is admitted to our hospital suite and, of course, you will be able to ask the admitting nurse any further questions you may have about the procedure your pet is having.
Most animals are admitted without prior premedication/sedation – there is a variety of drugs now available for this purpose and we tailor your pet’s needs taking into account his/her general fitness and temperament and, of course, the type of techniques being undertaken. Some dogs can be quite nervous when left – owners may then be asked to wait whilst the animal is sedated and, of course, if you prefer to be with your dog when the sedative is given we will try and comply with your request. We always use pre-operative analgesia to help reduce pain during the recovery period
We do try and have pets ready for home the same day whenever possible - we believe they are much happier and so recover quicker in their own environment; however some cases inevitably do require hospitalisation (if the surgery has been very extensive or if there are special feeding needs for example) and we have a full range of Shorline hospital kennel units with the ability to provide various types of intensive care (including additional thermal support, blood transfusions and administration of pure oxygen) if needed. Like everywhere else in the hospital our theatres and wards are air-conditioned.
All animals are carefully monitored throughout their stay with us - our nurses run a shift system to provide observation of in-patients through the whole of the 24 hour period if necessary. Along with any necessary ongoing monitoring of really ill patients, our nurses do a full ward round routinely checking all in-patients after evening surgery and, again at approximately 22.00 - 23.00. If the duty nurse finds any problems then contact is immediately made with the duty vet who will then come in for a personal look if necessary.
Please remember that any technique requiring a general anaesthetic carries a risk - this risk is higher in older animals and you have the option to request a blood screen, undertaken prior to surgery. We do recommend that you take up this option as it has proved invaluable in the past in some cases and has definitely saved lives and serious illness. Our aim is to make every step as safe as possible and to this end we use the most up to date, sophisticated anaesthetics available for our pet patients. We do recommend the use of Sevofluorane particularly for the very young, elderly or poorly patients - it is much the safest anaesthetic we have available, causes no problems in the liver and gives a really safe and calm recovery phase. It is slightly more expensive than Isofluorane but will give you peace of mind as well as us. Our new state of the art monitoring systems allow us to measure blood pressure, blood gases, oxygen levels and ECG as well as heart and respiration rates.
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