Although general anesthesia is very safe, our veterinarians and support staff take a number of measures to alleviate pain and make this procedure even less risky. You can be sure your pet is in the best hands.
At Wheat Ridge, ensuring the safety and comfort of our patients is essential. General anesthesia is necessary for many procedures including MRI and CT scans, endoscopy procedures, surgery, and dentals. The overall risk of general anesthesia, in our healthy veterinary patients with appropriate monitoring, is fortunately very low (less than 1% in recent studies). However, we realize the thought of having your pet anesthetized can be worrisome.
Wheat Ridge offers individualized anesthesia planning for each and every pet that is to undergo sedation or anesthesia at our hospital. Prior to anesthesia, the doctor will perform a complete physical examination and consider your pet’s temperament, age, breed, health and the procedure when creating their plan. These considerations will influence drug choices, support, and the monitoring of your pet while they are anesthetized to make sure he or she is safe from beginning to end. An important part of this is a thorough pain management plan which is devised for each individual pet. We have state-of-the-art monitoring equipment to enable accurate monitoring of your pet’s cardiovascular and pulmonary systems.
Wheat Ridge has a full range of specialists, including a board certified veterinary anesthesiologist. For each patient, Dr. Nicole Trenholme helps to develop your patient’s individualized anesthesia plan, directly supervise the case, and will be available if any unforeseen complications arise.
Dr. Trenholme has extensive experience safely anesthetizing patients with a variety of disease processes including cardiovascular, pulmonary, liver, and kidney disease, to patients with endocrine disorders, and patients with intracranial issues, and of course, patients requiring anesthesia for emergency procedures. She is also trained in regional anesthesia techniques using ultrasound guidance and electrolocation. Regional blocks have become the standard of care in human medicine because they provide the best pain control after surgery, and allow us to use lower doses of other pain medications that can affect appetite and alertness and can cause nausea and constipation.
In addition to our anesthesiologist, our experienced veterinary technicians monitor each patient during anesthesia, using a wide array of parameters. They observe the patient for mucous membrane color and quality of respirations, and use state-of-the-art monitoring equipment to measure levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, blood pressure, and activity of the heart. After the procedure, our veterinary team will monitor your pet closely to ensure a smooth, pain-free recovery.
Please take comfort in knowing your pet will be well cared for if he or she requires general anesthesia at Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital. Soft, warm bedding and the human interaction, observation and compassion of your pet’s dedicated veterinary technician ensures recovery from surgery and anesthesia is as comfortable as possible.
We are here to support you. No patient is too old or too complicated for anesthesia. Rarely, they may be too ill, in these cases, we can help guide decision-making for these patients.
Veterinary Referrals
Submit a Referral
For Veterinarians: To refer a patient to our specialties, please call us at 303-424-3325 or email us at wrah@wrah.com