Preparing Your Pet for Surgery

If your pet requires an anaesthetic, in order to undergo treatment at the surgery, there are some preparations you can make to enhance your pet’s wellbeing.

Food should be withheld from about 10pm the night prior to admission. Water can be made available until admission. No breakfast should be given on the morning of the surgery.

The admitting nurse will ask some questions about any medication your pet takes, and when it was last administered.

All pets undergo a thorough physical examination following admission, by a nurse and a vet.

Older pets (dogs over 8yo and cats over 10yo, as a general guide; this might vary depending on the breed, or health issues already present) undergo a blood test, to investigate if there are underlying organ conditions that may compromise their ability to metabolise an anaesthetic. The safety of your pet is our priority, and, whilst these tests carry an additional cost, this information is vital to the anaesthesia considerations. Occasionally, we might also request that you bring a urine sample on the morning of the surgery. A fresh sample, voided that morning, is ideal, and any clean container will suffice to collect it.

We like to admit all our day cases at 8.30-9.00 am, so that we can do their clinical examinations, perform pre-op bloods where required, and administer the pre-op medications for each animal. This allows us to efficiently proceed through our op list. Whilst your animal may spend the whole day with us, as they wait their turn, they are fully attended to throughout the day by our caring and dedicated nurses.