I was so surprised last year when I had my surgery. I remember the anesthesiologist starting the IV...next thing I knew, I was in recovery. I never saw the OR .. it was the first time that ever happened to me. I have always known I was in there and talked to them just prior to going under. It was definitely less stressful!

I actually just had to switch my vet. This article is what happened in his practice and I guess he didn't care enough about his clients to send a letter or anything. I am glad he recognized something was wrong but well I am not going back to him as I don't trust his or mostly his wife's judgement on hiring decent staff since she blew in and started running the place. She isn't very nice either which is what really pushed my decision after finding out about this.....Man charged with stealing drug from Gilford veterinary practice

yes I agree. I am pretty sure I remember seeing the cabinet and it is all locked up but I assume he had a key to everything.

That article was very interesting and I thank 107Barney for posting it. If you live long enough, you will hear of the "rare" and they are rare mishaps and even deaths from anaesthesia.

As the health care guardian and decision maker for your dog, you need to understand the risks of surgery, but also the risks of not proceeding ahead with the surgery.

I liked how that article elaborated the different protocols for the "sighthounds" and the snub nosed breeds, as this is quite common knowledge that these dogs do have issues with anaesthesia.

Sadly there was a friend of mine who lost a young 18 month old BRT to anaesthesia reaction, it was irreversible hypothermia. He went in for a "benign" procedure, and yes all pre op blood work was done, as well he passed his cardiac test, his expanded Thyroid test, etc.
He died in the recovery room at Univ of Penn hospital.

It was devastating for her, but 2yrs later, she needed to go into surgery again with her older dog, for a necessary procedure, and so she did. Thankfully her dog did very well indeed, and she of course was very relieved.

Thanks for sharing this information.

Matthias,
I don't know what your problem is, but take it up with yourself.

I'm not sure either since this is an excellent article/information. I wanted to respond but now it's gone :rolleyes:

Great article.

Yes, there are risks to anesthesia. There are also risks associated with walking, falling off the bed, choking on food, a reaction to immunizations, riding in a car and especially to not getting necessary treatments. The best we can do in this life is to attempt to minimize the risks involved in any activity.

Knowing protocols and doing recommended preoperative tests are great places to start.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I bet more people die from the things mentioned above than dogs frpm anesthesia.

When you put off doing necessary procedures like spays and dentals there are greater possibility of complications. For instance, you do not spay your dog there is a much greater chance they will develop mammory tumors as a senior due to the hormones that she has been exposed with each heat cycle. There is also the chance that she could develop pyrometria and this is a life threatening emergency. Now a simple spay that would have been without complications has turned into a spay, tumor removal and a much longer procedure for a senior pet. This is when complications are more likely to arise since the dog will be under anesthesia (and a deep anesthesia) for a longer period of time and there is also a great amount of blood lose resulting in more stress for the dog and a longer recovery as well. It's the same with routine dentals. If you were to vet your dog annually and the vet suggests that a dental be done for periodontal disease prevention, it is a much less risky procedure. But if you were to wait until all of your dogs teeth were in an advanced state of periodontal disease and they were at risk of losing some or even all the teeth this is much more risky as well. Then you add into the equation the depth of anesthesia required to do longer and more complicated surgeries the risk will increase as well as the recovery time. My point is, early on in your pets life if you take proper preventative care the risk is always much lower and the outcome more positive. When you wait until you are faced with my dog needs a spay because there are mammory tumor and she is a senior or my dog has death breath because she (or he) has advanced periodontal disease then there is cause for concern for a positive outcome or complications.