For some procedures, your cat will need to be administered general anesthesia so that he or she will be unconscious and not feel pain. Many cat owners worry about their cats being administered general anesthesia. We can assure you that modern anesthesia is generally quite safe; to further lower any risk, we perform a physical examination and run blood work ahead of time to catch any underlying health issues. In addition, we follow a specific anesthetic protocol, including monitoring vital signs during the procedure, to ensure the safety of our patients.
Coastal Cat Clinic uses different anesthetic protocols depending upon the procedure but, the majority involve using gas anesthesia. Unlike an injectable anesthetic or sedative, using a gas anesthetic combined with oxygen enables us to control the depth of anesthesia. Therefore, when we are done with the procedure we are able to turn off the gas and allow the cat to reawaken. There is no residual “drunken” like state that takes hours to days to wear off. Using properly administered and monitored gas anesthesia is safer in most cases than injectable drugs or physically restraing an awake patient. Many cat patients are already stressed and are nervous with increased blood pressure and heart rates- only to become more stressed if veterinary personnel need to “struggle” with a cat patient. We strongly believe that we do “cat medicine” differently.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your cat receiving general anesthesia or about the procedure for which your cat is scheduled.