| YorkieMumma | 03-19-2009 08:54 PM |
You make the appointment when you are ready, sweetie. And know that she will be fine through it. I don't want to make anyone overly fearful of their babies undergoing anesthesia, just be as prepared as you can and do what you think is right for your own baby.
Since Olive's death, I have researched, read, talked to numerous vets about the best safety protocol for we can do to prepare our babies for surgery. And this I want to share with you all:
1) The safest anesthesia to use is Sevoflurane. This is also known as pediatric gas, because they use this for pediatric surgeries for tiny babies undergoing surgery. It is also the safest on the liver.
2) Do the tests before undergoing anesthesia: blood work, bile liver acid test, and an EKG! An electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) is a test that checks for problems with the electrical activity of the heart. A very prominant vet clinic here performs an EKG on the dogs before undergoing surgery. The clinic (though rare), has had anethesia deaths, and it had been because of irregular heart beat or cardiac arrest during anesthesia. So because of this, it is now a mandatory test in their clinic before surgery. The vet told me that there has been instances when they DID detect irregular heartbeats, and have actually postponed the surgery, to wait until further tests can be done and the puppy is bigger/stronger.
I know I'm now completely traumatized after what I went through with Olive. But I know that in the future when I bring my next baby to be spayed (even though I'll probably be close to panic-stricken), I have the knowledge to be prepared and minimize the risks.
"Tractorqueen", my prayers for safety for little Bella as she goes in tomorrow. Please keep us posted. I'm sure she'll do fine.
Thank you all for your loving words and support. I still have days with I bawl my eyes out because I miss little Olive, but it's your posts like this that will help me heal.
quote=LilMissy;2530941]Thank you so much for responding to my comment in this thread (and sorry to the OP for barging in). I actually just made an appt yesterday for Missy to be spayed on March 30th. I have felt wrong about this decision since the moment that I made the appt. I rebooked it THREE times trying to decide when would be right. She is 6.5 months old now and weighs 2 lbs 12 ozs. She had to have major leg surgery 6 weeks ago...I just don't feel right about putting her under anaesthetic again, but as people have been saying...the pressure from the vet has been on. "Get her spayed before the first heat"...blah blah blah. I'm sorry but it's not worth losing my baby. I think that I'm going to phone tomorrow and cancel that appt. She can have one heat. Give her some time to heal so that she's nice and strong when she has to go for her spay surgery.[/quote] | 