Surgical Standards of Care


At Rice Village Animal Hospital your pet's comfort and safety are our primary concern.  Because anesthesia and surgery can be a stressful time for your pet and you, we do all we can to minimize any stress and discomfort, and to maximize safety.  In other words, we treat your pet as if it were our own.  We understand that cost can be a factor in choosing your pet's health care.  Therefore, we would like to describe our standard of care and how it benefits your pet and you.

Pain Management: Research has shown that animals feel pain in much the same way as we do.  Unfortunately, they do a poor job of informing us of their pain and will instinctively try to hide symptoms of pain.  Pain management involves not only anesthesia, but a variety of additional medications given solely to relieve pain associated with surgery.  We use a multimodal approach (several medications) to insure your pet does not experience pain during or after surgery.

IV Catheters/Fluids: All patients receive an IV catheter prior to undergoing general anesthesia. This allows us to administer medications more comfortably to your pet, and provides us access to a vein should an emergency arise during surgery or anesthesia.  IV fluids are used to help maintain blood pressure, blood flow through the kidneys, and replace normal fluid loss during anesthesia.

Anesthesia: Prior to anesthesia and surgery, we perform a thorough evaluation of your pet's age, breed, general health via a physical exam and laboratory tests. Then, based on the individual needs of each patient and the type of surgery or procedure that will be performed, we choose from several types of sedatives, local and general anesthetics, plus pain control medications.  Our goal is to insure your pet is as safe and comfortable as possible.

Patient Monitoring: All patients under anesthesia are monitored with an EKG and pulse oximeter.  In addition, a veterinary technician monitors and records vital signs during anesthesia, and stays with your pet until fully recovered.

Pre-Anesthetic Tests: We require all patients to have a blood test prior to general anesthesia.  Our in-house lab can provide information before surgery which can alert us of abnormalities before anesthesia and surgery are performed.  These tests provide information about the liver, kidneys, blood sugar levels and the ability of the red blood cells to carry oxygen.  Many subtle problems can be detected only through a complete blood count(CBC) or blood chemistries.

Monitoring Body Tempurature: Heat support is a major part of safe surgery and rapid recovery.  All surgeries are performed on a water circulated heated pad and the patient's body temperature is monitored during both surgery and recovery.

Please feel free to ask questions about any aspects of your pet's health care. These standards of care are very important to us, as is your concern for your pet. Please let us know if we can help in any way.