Spaying or neutering your pet is an important surgery. Many owners consider it a routine procedure. While it may be routine it doesn’t mean it’s without dangers. The standards of care for spays and neuters and any surgery vary wildly. Many clients will choose to go to a cheaper spay and neuter clinic or facility simply because of cost. Do you really know what kind of care your pet is receiving? Do you know what their standards of care are? At NCAH, all pets are required to have bloodwork, EKG and chest radiographs before surgery. Our doctors believe it is imperative to know of and be ready to handle any underlying conditions that may not be known by examination. Your doctor would never perform surgery on you without those testsbeing performed first. All pets will have a IV catheter placed and will receive IV fluids before, during and after the procedure. During surgery we monitor their EKG, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and temperature and use body warming equipment and fluid warming IV pump if necessary. Surgery is done in our surgical suite following proper sterilization standards of clothing, environment and equipment in order to reduce the risk of contamination and or infection. We use only sevo-flurane anesthetic gas(used in human pediatric surgeries). Many vet hospitals still use isoflurane (an older, less expensive, less sophisticated anesthetic gas with more side-effects). All patients are monitored diligently when waking from anesthesia and comforted and held when appropriate. At NCAH we use drugs for pain relief pre-surgery to relax and reduce stress and post-surgery for pain relief, as well as anti-biotics to prevent infection. Make sure you find out what standards of care any facility follows prior to selecting them for surgery on your pet. Surgery is serious business no matter what kind of surgery it is.