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Originally Posted by Ellie May  I would most definately get preop blood work. You can take this a step further and do a bile acid test to look specifically at liver function. I would do this also...some other people would not. Since it should be done on all Yorkies anyway, six months and before spay/neuter is a good time in my opinion. There are other screenings you can do like fecals and urinalysis to make sure she is perfectly healthy but these aren't usually recommended before surgery.
As Beth said, insist on pain meds. Some vets will tell you that if the dog is in pain, they will take it easy. Well, if the dog is on pain meds they may be sleepy which is good. I think that it is so sad that some of them do this.
Toy breeds lose body heat quickly. Surgery should be done on a heated surface.
Isoflurane or Sevoflurane anesthesia should be used. Usually they will do the induction with something else. That is okay if you are happy with the drug that they are using. Sometimes it is Propofol.
Sometimes they are kept overnight and sometimes they are not. If they want to keep her and there is someone there awake all night, then I would comply. If they want to keep her but nobody is there watching or they only come in a couple times a night, I would not leave her. |
We will do the pre-op blood work, but he said we can't do the bile acid test on the same day as the surgery (like we can the other blood work), so I think we're going to save that one for later if we need to....as far as I know, she doesn't have any signs/symptoms that she may have a liver shunt, yet anyway.
He is going to send her home with pain meds (as well as giving her injections while she's in the clinic)....shoot! I should have asked what kind!!!?
I asked if the surgery is done on a heated table, and he said the table is insulated but not heated. He said that besides vitals, they also monitor core body temperature (not rectal) during the procedure, so if she were to get cold, they would warm her up before proceding.
I asked about the type of anesthesia they use.....they induce with KETAMINE and VALIUM (until they get her intubated) and then continue with isoflurane during the surgery. He also said, that the ketamine and valium is pretty standard. Does anyone (Crystal?) know if this is okay to use? I always thought ketamine was a horse tranquilizer, but I guess if you greatly reduce the dosage, it would work on a much smaller animal...the question is, how safe is it?
AND, she will not be kept overnight!! YAY!
The reason I'm using this vet is that he is the one who removed her litter's dewclaws, and he will re-do the one that grew back at no charge. Also, he practices about an hour and a half away (close to where the breeder lives)from where I live, but he actually lives in the same town as me....and he said that it would be no problem for him to pick her up in the morning and take her in, and then I could choose to pick her up at the end of the day, or he would bring her back with him. I'm leaning toward picking her up myself, but I think it would be a HUGE help if she could just go in with him that morning.
Last, but not least, since she's staying there all day but not overnight, should I go ahead and do the bordatella nose drops just to be safe? Or should I not??