[yorkietalkjilly]

My little Jilly who was the runt of her otherwise normal litter and weighed just over 3 lbs. as an adult, had many health issues and due to her tiny size, I held off even getting her neutered as she was never around intact males and never let off her lead when outside as long as I could. But I so feared cancer developing that when she was 6 years of age, I finally got the courage to have her spayed. Not too much longer after that, out on a walk, a big dog off lead came out of nowhere & attacked her after she stepped forward & growled/barked in protection of me as he rushed up to us in an aggressive manner. He had her up in his jaws and severely injured her but she underwent surgery as soon as I could get her home to the car and to the ER vet and she did very well with anesthesia. When she was 13 years old, she had surgery for a dislocated shoulder, coming through that anesthesia fine as well. Of course, she had her dental cleanings under anesthesia as well occasionally - not too many as she had very good teeth for a tiny Yorkie but all in all, she had several general anesthesias over her lifetime and never had any problems.

Of course, she had pre-op blood work to be sure she was healthy enough to have surgery, an IV was running and her vitals were monitored during the procedures but still I worried throughout each case but she always did fine for such a tiny, frail dog. Try not to worry and go ahead and schedule the dental cleaning. Today's anesthesia drugs, equipment and protocols, often tailored for the tiny dogs so popular now in world society, are so very advanced over the "old" days of veterinary surgery.

I'd be sure to use a veterinary surgeon who has a large, successful practice consisting of many toy dogs as he/she would tend to cater to and know far more about the toy-dog veterinary general anesthesia issues than a large-animal veterinarian out in the county might not. I'd fully discuss the things I was concerned about with the surgeon and find out why they don't use certain things during surgical teeth cleanings as you have the right to know what is being done to ensure your dog's safety during surgery and consider another vet if you don't get the answers you feel comfortable with.

My former employer, who was an orthopedic surgeon, told me that the pulse-ox monitor during surgery was one of medicine's greatest advances in patient care in many years.