The patient should be
examined and have a pre-anesthesia screen. In most
young healthy pets, this is a simple blood test. In
pets that are a little older or have other issues
discovered a urinalysis might be recommended. Chest
radiographs or other evaluations may be recommended
or required. To reduce the cost of procedures,
these screening tests may be completely omitted.
Abnormalities may then not be detected until it is
too late, or may make recovery after the surgery
much harder on the pet and the owner.
Once the pet is in the
hospital on the morning of the procedure,
medications should be used to relax the patient and
start the pain management program. Again, forgoing
this step leads to a much more nervous pet, which
increases the release of epinephrine in the system
and can actually lead to increased abnormal heart
contractions. Of course, it is cheaper to delete
this step.
As noted above, not
placing an IV catheter, not starting IV fluids, no
intubations, not monitoring for respiration and
heart rate and rhythm all reduces the cost of the
procedure at your pets risk.
The patient should be clipped,
vacuumed free of debris and special disinfectants
used to prepare the surgical area prior to being
moved into the surgical suite.
